GI.CORLUZ – COLOUR AND LIGHT RESEARCH GROUP

UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA

FOUNDATION

CIAUD GI.CorLuz – Colour and Light Research Group was set up in March 2016 at the Lisbon School of Architecture – University of Lisbon. Its roots are found in the Faculty of Architecture’s pre-Bologne Masters Degree Course on Colour in Architecture, a pioneer programme of colour in architecture at worldwide scale, founded in 2003.

The LabCor – Colour Laboratory was created to develop research projects that bloomed from the Master dissertations, and since 2004 the Colour Laboratory has served as a platform for dynamic relations between academia and a variety of entities that constitute the integrated areas of architecture, design and the arts. Adding to a Masters Course and a Laboratory, the APCor – Portuguese Colour Association, also embedded in the Lisbon Faculty of Architecture, was born to strengthen local dissemination of colour, and internationalise research since in 2005 when it joined the AIC – International Colour Association. Hence, in 2016 the Colour and Light Research Group stemmed from a fertilised colour and light field at the Lisbon School of Architecture and grew into a complex array of directions, in symphony with the other colour and light structures providing contributions to academic and to society at large.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

• Develop collective and individual research projects by members and collaborators in the areas defined by the mission.

• Contribute to the development of the study of colour and light in academia, science, art, and society in general.

• Promote interaction between academia and the production of research knowledge, namely through teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

• Establish outreach programmes and partnerships with entrepreneurial, industrial, and research sectors of society.

• Participate with supervision of master, doctoral and post-doctoral research projects, both national and international.

• Build a network of artistic and scientific-based knowledge on colour and light across disciplines at the School of Architecture, as well as research centres with similar interests and objectives.

• Disseminate ongoing research results through national and international activities: publication of scientific articles, books, conferences/congresses/symposia, exhibitions, professional training courses, consultancy, as well as professional practices in art, design and architecture.

• Engage in partnerships with municipalities, public and private health entities, schools, and industrial enterprises.

ETHOS AND MISSION

A central feature of GI.CorLuz – Colour and Light Research Group is its assumed interdisciplinarity. The binomial between colour and light is present in every single aspect of planet Earth, be it created by nature itself or as a result of human construction. One of the missions of GI.CorLuz – Colour and Light Research Group is to approach research form an interdisciplinary standpoint, taking into account such multidisciplinary areas as ergonomics, physiology, neurophysiology, biology, chemistry, psychology, physics, physiology, history, aesthetics, anthropology, lighting, technology, virtual reality and in a variety computational drawing supports, art, architecture, cinema, design, marketing, advertising, urbanism, geography.

A relevant mission for the research group is its academic dimension in the pursuit of collaborations with different national and international research structures whose interests are common or complementary, leading to deeper scientific, artistic and technological knowledge. The relevance of research produced at the Lisbon School of Architecture is mirrored in the existance of the largest academic repository of colour and light research projects for Master Dissertations, Doctoral Thesis, and Post-doctoral projects in Portugal.

Internally, GI.CorLuz has partnerships with LabCor – Colour Laboratory, APCor – Associação Portuguesa da Cor / The Portuguese Colour Association, among others; and externally with AIC – International Colour Association, SG.CE – Study Group on Colour Education, SG.ECD – Study Group on Environmental Colour Design (AIC), SG.AD – Study Group on Arts and Design (AIC), SG.LC – Study Group on the Language of Colour, SG.CVP – Study Group on Colour Vision and Psychophysics, and others.

Internationalisation is a mission achieved through dissemination of research results with exposure to international platforms of congresses, exhibitions and workshops, but also through scholarships, visiting professorships, the development of international research protocols aimed at creating synergy between theory and practice predominantly in the domains of Art, Design and Architecture, such the exchange fostered by Visiting Professorships and Erasmus Staff Mobility for Teaching.

Contributions to society have been accomplished in projects for rehabilitation of industrial environments, creation of urban colour palettes, housing, schools, offices, health facilities, biophilic design, physiological and aesthetic awareness and cultural heritage projects with national and international outreach.