Luciano Zucchi Bursary

Apply now for the Luciano Zucchi Bursary open to all seeking to pursue a postgraduate degree in Light and Lighting at UCL.

A photo of Luciano Zucchi sitting at a desk, smiling while working on some drawings

In memory of Luciano Zucchi, we are pleased to offer a £6,250 bursary to support a Light and Lighting student at UCL in their studies.

How to apply

Applications are open for current students in the 2025-26 academic year and we will shortly be opening applications for those with an offer to study Light and Lighting MSc or are due to start an Environmental Design and Engineering MPhil/PhD focused on Light and Lighting in the 2026-27 academic year.

Applications are open to current Light and Lighting students. 

Step 1

Submit the following documents A and B to: bartlett.pg-bseer@ucl.ac.uk 

Note that your name should not appear on any documentation. This is to ensure that shortlisting is done anonymously. The files should be clearly labelled “Luciano Zucchi Bursary Application”, “_Statement”, and “_Portfolio”. Submissions will be managed by administration who will ensure all applications are anonymous before sending to the Panel. Any applications that cannot be anonymised will be rejected.

A - Written Supporting Statement - 750 words
Demonstrate the alignment of your reason to study lighting with the motivation for setting up the Scholarship, as articulated in the Scholarship Background section below. You could refer to your portfolio to demonstrate your appreciation of light in architecture. Your statement must explain how you would use your design aptitude within the field of lighting.

B - Design Portfolio (20 A3 pages, 25MB max.)
Demonstrate design aptitude in portfolio work samples, ideally from the lighting field. The Panel are looking for an appreciation of the human response to light and a focus on the relationship between product design and the lit environment, including the integration of the product within buildings. Applicants will be judged by a Panel on the quality and coherence of their portfolio.

Step 2
If you are shortlisted you will be required to prepare a presentation for an in person Interview (10 slides max.). Location: Central House. 
This should summarise the key points in A and B.

Deadlines

  • Submission of Step 1: Sunday, 19th of October, 11 am.
  • Informing candidates of the outcome of their application on Friday 24th of October. Applicants will be emailed to let them know if they have been shortlisted.  
  • Submission of Step 2 for shortlisted candidates: Sunday, 2nd of November, 11 am.
  • In person interview held: Monday, 10th of November.
  • Winner Announced: Week commencing 1st of December.

Applications are open to students with an offer to study Light and Lighting in the 2026/27 academic year. To receive an offer to study you need to make a successful application to study Light and Lighting MSc or to start an Environmental Design and Engineering MPhil/PhD focused on Light and Lighting in the 26/27 academic year.

Step 1 - Application 

Once you have received an offer to study Light and Lighting at UCL you can apply for this bursary. Submit the following documents A and B to: bartlett.pg-bseer@ucl.ac.uk

Note that your name should not appear on any documentation. This is to ensure that shortlisting is done anonymously. The files should be clearly labelled “Luciano Zucchi Bursary Application”, “_Statement”, and “_Portfolio”. Submissions will be managed by administration who will ensure all applications are anonymous before sending to the Panel. Any applications that cannot be anonymised will be rejected.

Deadline for applications: 10 August 2026 at 11 am (GMT)

A - Written Supporting Statement - 750 words
Demonstrate the alignment of your reason to study lighting with the motivation for setting up the Scholarship, as articulated in the Scholarship Background section below. You could refer to your portfolio to demonstrate your appreciation of light in architecture. Your statement must explain how you would use your design aptitude within the field of lighting.

B - Design Portfolio (20 A3 pages, 25MB max.)
Demonstrate design aptitude in portfolio work samples, ideally from the lighting field. The Panel are looking for an appreciation of the human response to light and a focus on the relationship between product design and the lit environment, including the integration of the product within buildings. Applicants will be judged by a Panel on the quality and coherence of their portfolio.

Candidates of the outcome of their application on 31st August 2026. Applicants will be emailed to let them know if they have been shortlisted.

Step 2 - Interview
If you are shortlisted you will be required to prepare a presentation (10 slides maximum) for an in-person interview. This should summarise the key points in A and B.

Deadline for submission of Step 2 for shortlisted candidates is 14 September 2026 at 11 am GMT. Interviews will take place on week commencing 21 September 2026.

The winner will be announced week commencing 28 September 2026.

Study Light and Lighting at UCL

At UCL, we offer both master’s and PhD opportunities to study Light and Lighting.

The Light and Lighting MSc combines the technical and creative aspects of daylighting and lighting design, providing a broad range of knowledge and skills to support your career as a lighting professional in the built environment.

As part of the Environmental Design and Engineering MPhil/PhD, we host PhD students who want to expand knowledge in the field of light and lighting as part of our Lighting Research Group.

About Luciano Zucchi (1931-2022)

He often said that his calling as an industrial designer, specialising in light, was preordained by his name, Luciano; luce being the Italian word for light. Born in Rome, Luciano emigrated at the age of 19 to South Africa, where he became a self-taught industrial designer. In the late 1950s, he moved to London and joined the fledgling lighting company, Rotaflex, which soon became the UK’s leading manufacturer of contemporary light fittings under the brand name Concord.

As Director of Design for over 20 years, Luciano oversaw all facets of design, production and marketing. He contributed to the design of some of Concord’s most iconic products, including Tubetrack, a lighting and display system with both electrical and structural components, which won a Design Council Award in 1977 and is now part of the collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum. In addition to designing other notable products, like the Silverspan fluorescent light, versatile Flamingo lamps and Lytespan track system, Luciano specified the lighting for many international installations, including Luxor Temple in Egypt, the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne and the National Theatre in London.

In the 1980s he set up his own independent lighting and brand consultancy, Lightscape, whose clients included GE Lighting, I Guzzini and Lightolier. His work continued to cover a broad range of applications, from the design of light bulbs (GE ‘Halogems’) and demountable ceiling systems (Matrix) to an integral mirror light (Lightolier ‘Alice’) and multiple exhibition stands, installations and product brochures in which his eye for photography and graphics was married with a gift for concise engaging narrative. His holistic interdisciplinary approach was evident throughout; a passion not just for lighting but all aspects of design, including furniture and interiors, and all parts of the process, from the earliest sketch to fully detailed production drawings and prototypes.

If he had had the means in his youth, he would have given anything to pursue formal studies in lighting design or architecture. This scholarship, awarded in his name, exists to provide the kind of support to students that did not exist in his day and encourage future recipients to think about lighting, natural and artificial, in the broadest way possible; remembering all the while that creative choreography of light requires sensitivity to its indispensable companions, texture and shadow.