Rogier van der Heide: Why light needs darkness

www.ted.com Lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world -- by paying attention to light (and to darkness). Examples from classic buildings illustrate a deeply thought-out vision of the play of light around us.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate.

[@cljt]

As an exhibition designer i rely on lighting on so many levels to enhance the visitor experience. As a human, i rely on my refuge in the rural New Zealand countryside to reconnect to the awe inspiring night sky. I enjoyed this presentation - thank you Rogier and TED

[@PrinsTsabi]

this is exactly what we do as theater lighting designers... we have to balance light and darkness. great talk!

[@OccamsKatana]

AMSTERDAM JONGE! - I myself hail from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and I am proud to have one of us give a TED-talk - may many more follow!

[@bavwill]

Wow, great thought, action and talk.

[@DeviantincTV]

As a lighting designer I love this talk! We do too many jobs where there are 'uniformity' requirements - good lighting works with contrast! How can you make a great looking train station when you're constrained to 0.7unif over a concourse?! BTW - the very latest LEDs are actually much bigger and have external phosphor (it makes them more efficient and last longer due to over-heating less)....

[@MarkArandjus]

I've actually never seen that chapel from the inside, nice.

[@red_panda538]

Beautiful thought. Always fun to hear Dutch people doing their best English. And I know, because I'm one of them (;

[@simonmasla]

@Tolstoievsky His point is to (pardon the pun) bring to light how important lighting is to our civilization. He is really showing us how much most of us take it for granted.

[@SEThatered]

@Jidster01 What's your problem? As an architecture, art and engeneering student i appreciate this particular talk very much!

[@andreeaweed]

wow this is very very grate design ...grate

[@solojam]

finally get to learn something

[@blueshift314]

@S0chan Wow you have a really weird view on things. When I first saw that I was awestruck. It is an amazing piece of lighting and darkness

[@Jotto999]

Cool!

[@elchafa337]

I like the "use darkness as a canvas" phrase.

[@AndrewNeiles]

8:40 idear, my favourite part...

[@Benlucky13]

as soon as i get a house of my own, its going to be in a place far away from city lights. i want to see the streak across the sky that is our galaxy.

[@Grim4566]

I really enjoy light blue walls.

[@janl2097]

Thats not richard kelly beside mies, thats philip johnson.

[@Cruzzzzz1988]

@earthfx which one is better?

[@thesilvernymph]

@Ko252 Actually, yes.

[@McPrfctday]

@Jidster01 You don't think this comes under the 'design' category?

[@carendychangco]

What's the name of the spa at 16:00??

[@rogiervdheide]

It's the Thermen in Vals, Switzerland

[@bluefootedpig]

@S0chan i actually imagine on the other wall is very nice looking. As all those are stain glasses.

[@Hrel88]

I do not understand why we're not using exclusively lights that don't pollute. I didn't think it would be that hard; we know it's a problem now. Let's fix it!

[@Sir9real]

no light without darkness.

[@dswellhauser]

I enjoyed this one...not brilliant but informative....so rare for TED these days.

[@icantsleepsohereiam]

Giant LED!!! I think the Earth looks beautiful from a nighttime view, even if its dying.

[@meamjustme]

I want that king size SMD LED XD

[@rogiervdheide]

I can make it for you

[@blueshift314]

@S0chan yeah you can't really say whats good and whats not when it boils down to opinion

[@D3vilm4n]

i want that picture at 4min33 :O

[@rogiervdheide]

I can send it to you (a bit late though)

[@froyboy4life]

Perma high

[@bayouboyy]

@mithun330 The Potassium which is responsible for heating of the Earth through radioactive decay did not come from our local star, the sun. Earth's core would still be molten even without a local star. Virtually all of the matter that Earth is composed of did not come from our sun. Our sun and all of the planets got their matter from long dead stars. How exactly do you think matter gets from the sun to our Earth? The sun for the most part is closed system.

[@jk3696]

I know he's an architect, not an earth scientist, but I want to correct his statement. The greatest energy 'on' Earth is the heat produced in its interior by radioactive decay. This heat, along with the remnant heat from Earths amalgamation 4.55 billion years ago, tears apart continents, erects mountain belts, generates volcanic eruptions, and even drives the convection that produces our life-saving magnetic field. The sun is the primary (but not sole) source of biological energy.

[@Tolstoievsky]

he doesn't seem to be making any point... just a slideshow of recent architectural developments involving light in innovative ways

[@Trazynn]

@Ko252 German accents are at least amusing. Dutch accents just sounds smug.

[@Trazynn]

@missbutter81 I'm from the Netherlands and our Dutch accent makes my ears melt. It's seriously the worst way to speak english.

[@bayouboyy]

@normskis69 "Without sunlight, there wouldn't have been any carbon based material to form fossil fuels." All the carbon on Earth comes from long since dead stars. It did not come from our local star (the sun). Planets like Neptune has far more carbon based materials than Earth. I never said that all the organic matter in fossil fuels isn't formed from sunlight. Most of the ENERGY derived from fossil fuels comes from the heat and pressure applied to it, not the organic matter.

[@dieuhien08]

Interesting from a light pollution perspective...

[@Trazynn]

@Ko252 German accents are at least amusing. Dutch just sounds smug.

[@icantsleepsohereiam]

@RGBpulsar our light escaping into the atmosphere does not affect the actual stars. So what if want see stars the city, they're still out there and if you want to see them so badly, get out of the city.

[@Ko252]

@thesilvernymph I guess you are turned on by German movies then.

[@freesk8]

Fiat dark, eh? I guess he is a sort of "devil's advocate..." Perhaps contrast is really what he is advocating.

[@fashizzle]

nice try xehanort

[@onlyonehas]

Have you not considered your Lord - how He extends the shadow, and if He willed, He could have made it stationary? Then We made the sun for it an indication. 25:45 Qur'an Alif, Lam, Ra. [This is] a Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that you might bring mankind out of darknesses into the light by permission of their Lord - to the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy - (Al Qur'an 14:1)

[@randy161616]

Religion has no place in the workings of what is discussed in this video.

[@buddhabrot]

i can make light without darkness. he fails

[@jcgamer892]

interesting topic but needs a better speaker....nearly fell asleep just listening to him

[@elu5ive]

worthy of a TED talk? meh~

[@HigherPlanes]

WTF? 17 people hate light. lol

[@simonmasla]

@Tolstoievsky His point is to (pardon the pun) bring to light how important lighting is to our civilization. He is really showing us how much most of us take it for granted.