Leela Shanker
Leela Shanker works with the medium of light as a transformative material in the built environment. Her research and site-specific installations apply biophysics, material science and environmental psychology to translate experiences of everyday life into opportunities for social interaction and collective memory. With a background in architectural lighting design, film and media, Shanker’s work conveys emerging practices in construction and design impacting the light culture of cities from New York, Shanghai and Berlin to Sydney, London and Dubai.
Through the Flint Collective NYC, a design research studio and non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, she collaborates with architects, artists, product designers, educators and scientists disrupting systems of light delivery to demonstrate light's role in environments that nourish, stimulate and bring joy. In 2021, she received an Illuminating Engineering Society Lumen Award with Special Citation for Lighting as a Tool for Social Impact.