The article describes the method of abstract modelling of architectural plasticity. It includes the identification of its general compositional principles and artistic characteristics, united by the concepts of “natural” and “free” and correlated with the stylistic systems of modernism and postmodernism. The demonstration of how various electrical lighting techniques influence the architecture perception is also provided. The authors of this paper reveal peculiarities of the operation of lighting parameters and optical effects in relation to each type of model, including the interaction of external and internal spaces. They also formulate principles of creating dramaturgy and scenario of lighting solutions, and test methods of assessing the emotional perception of illuminated objects. The methodological material presented in this article provides the solution of such tasks as: the perception of architecture as an integral composition, acquaintance with the features of architectural plasticity of different times, the role of light in the perception of an architectural object, the evolution of the use of lighting techniques as a material for creating a work of art. It also describes how some masters work with electrical lighting and daylighting, as well what methods they use to create the dramaturgy of electrical light in experimental lighting solutions and to assess the emotional perception of objects under electrical lighting. The presented methodological approach allows the student to form a professional skill of working with lighting objects and spaces based on the formative properties of composition construction. This, in its turn, increases the quality of designing the architectural environment and reproducing its artistic features by means of electrical lighting.

This article examines the perception of architectural environment, and various approaches and methods of its light organization, including the design of evening illumination and objects of light design. Traced influence of the figurative discoveries of light art on light design, and the problems of the formation of individual light-plastic code of the urban environment as a means of manifesting the identity of the place are revealed.

The article presents a technique for creating a plastic and design-plastic light-spatial model based on the layout of the urban environment fragment. It also describes how this model corresponds to electrical lighting parameters. The paper formulates the tasks and potential of plastic and design-plastic light modelling and their role in the concept-based search and educational design of lighting solutions. In terms of this article, the plastic model is understood as a layout that exaggeratedly or generically reveals the spatial characteristics of an urban fragment. The design-plastic model is more detailed; it reveals the features of functioning of the latter both in daylight and in electrical lighting. The final stage of educational light modelling is the creation of a computer model of electrical lighting of an environmental situation. The authors of this paper studied the tools of electrical lighting and their role in identifying the device of the environmental fragment, in light routes creation and in scenario of the visual form of urban space. Conclusions are given on the further development of the methodology in the field of lighting design, including the assessment of the emotional perception of the architectural environment objects under electrical lighting. The results of this research were then applied as the basis for the practical project work of students who won the competition “Russian Lighting Design” in 2018.

The paper is devoted to the history of cooperation between the Department of Architectural Environment Design of the Moscow Architectural Institute and the ITMO University international educational program “Lighting Design”. It reveals the experience of inclusion into the educational process of the ITMO University international educational program “Lighting Design” of a lecture-practical unit dedicated to the modern principles concerning the lighting instruments operation in urban spaces of various sizes and purposes, as well as familiarizing with the basics of urban planning and urban development, types of open public spaces cities and components of urban fabric. The paper discusses a technique for modelling the compositional interaction between light and an urban tissue fragment, taking into account the peculiarities on the light instruments work in urban space characterized by various scales and typology, urban environment of various nature and compositional arrangement. In the process of work, students gained experience in identifying the structure and geometry of public spaces in the urban tissue, creating light routes and scenarios, and forming a system of light dominants. Conclusions are made about the significance of the design-plastic light modelling results and their influence on the design concept formation; the need to correlate the light-composition design search and the urban lighting components of various levels, as well as the meaning of lighting parameters such as the distribution of brightness and direction of luminance flux, the features of diffused and directional light and other components that affect human perception in order to create a multimodal design solution.