Today we introduce you to Mr. Daekwon Park, a young professional and the 3^rd prize laureate of the CLU Foundation contest. The judges were particularly charmed by the reinterpretation of evenings around a campfire. The aspects of interactivity, communication and community are well represented in his project entitled Sensible Light.

Tell me about your academic background and your work experience?

I am a designer and architect based in Cambridge, USA and simultaneously studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the post-professional Master’s Degree in design technology. Professionally, I have worked for Populous (formerly HOK Sport) as the director in Korea since 2009, independently leading all the projects there including the 2014 Incheon Asian Games Main Stadium, Gimpo Sports town master plan and Ansan Baseball dome project. I have also worked in their US, Australia, China offices from 2006 to 2009 on numerous sports/entertainment projects including the Target Field (Minnesota Twins MLB ballpark), Sochi Winter Olympics master plan, and Taipei Baseball Dome. In parallel with this career I have established my multi-disciplinary design practice ‘meta-territory_studio (www.daekwonpark.com)’ in 2008 and have been participating in design competitions, exhibitions and publications. Academically, I have focused on a broad range of design disciplines from urban design and master planning to architectural design and product/furniture design. Currently, my work is focused on design technology topics including digital fabrication process, computational design, advanced geometry, and interactive environment/object design.

How would you define your style? What differentiates you from others?

I think versatility is probably one of my strongest design identities. I have studied and worked in various scales and disciplines ranging from urban design to product design. Although everything could be categorized as “design”, there are still many distinctions (goal, process and outcome) between scales and disciplines that make each field unique in its own right. I believe my multi-faceted understanding and experience allows me to truly work inter-disciplinary and integrate key lessons learned from each disciplines in a creative way.

What motivated you to enter the CLU Competition?

The CLU competition provided me with a good opportunity to experiment and implement my interest in interactive/augmented environmental design. I was intrigued with the theme “Light it for Humanity” and ‘public lighting’ as the subject for design was both a challenging and rewarding experience for me.

How did your idea for the Sensible Light project come about and evolve?

Public lighting had various purposes and meanings for different cultures and societies. In the ancient time, public lighting was a bonfire which was a centerpiece for a gathering space as well as a vehicle for ceremonies, rituals and event. As the society grew larger and the territory extended to great distances, public lighting became a beacon. Signal fire was the means for communicating between distant settlements and a lighthouse was the instrument for guiding the sailors traveling the dark oceans. Nowadays, public lighting is an integral part of the urban fabric, preventing accidents and increasing public safety. In this context, this project aimed to create a public lighting that captures all of these aspects which can be summarized as a public lighting that can become a gathering space for events, a beacon for communication, and an infrastructure for public safety.

How would you feel if your Sensible Light project became a reality and was achievable?

I would be very excited to see Sensible Light become a reality. During the design of the Sensible Light project, I have built a working prototype that has all the components including the embedded electronics, light source, sensors and coding. I feel confident that the project is feasible and when the opportunity comes, the process of making it real will be a rewarding experience for me.

How would it change that environment?

I believe Sensible Light system will become one of the key features of the urban environment and define the major public spaces and the fabric of the city in a highly visual way. Not only will it function as a public infrastructure for public safety but also add additional values by functioning as an anchor for major gathering spaces throughout the city and as a visual landmark that communicates with the public.

What’s the most important thing that you have learned by participating in this competition?

This competition gave me the opportunity to think about public lighting as infrastructure for public safety as well as an element that has rich symbolic meaning to the people. I became aware of the importance of public lighting and its potential to expand the effect to urban environment and fabric with great impact.

What do you think of urban lighting in the future?

I believe urban lighting in the future will be interactive, smart, and multifunctional. As a public infrastructure, urban lighting has a potential to become the main interface between the public and the urban environment. With the availability of low cost sensors, actuations and lighting source, urban lighting will not only interact with people through light, motion and visual information but also with each other. This will open up unlimited amount of possibilities (i.e. urban sensing, data collection and crowd sensing, communication and urban media, etc.) that could be implemented into urban lighting system.

Where do you see yourself professionally in ten years?

I would like to see my multi-disciplinary design practice, ‘meta-territory_studio’ running both as an experimental design laboratory as well as a full scale office. The studio would have capacity to handle large scale urban design, master planning, architecture, and landscape projects to interior, industrial design products, and interaction design. In addition to this I would like to see myself teaching/collaborating with talented students and hope to inspire people with a book about design.