The architecture of light: architectural lighting design concepts and techniques. A textbook of procedures and practices for the architect, interior designer and lighting designer pdfdrive com

Chapter 3 More Impact with Less Light

“It’s all about placement.”
The most important awareness for effective lighting design is the focus on where light is delivered. As we deepen our understanding of how humans translate light to vision and ultimately experience, we become acutely aware of how to maximize the desired experience of our design through careful placement of light.
Sustainable design and a concern for resources are increasing priorities
for architecture and construction. This trend has already led to significant legislation and implementation of codes that control how much electricity we dedicate to electric light. This concern for consumption usually takes the form of recommendations for light levels applied to tasks and environments. These studies and guidelines for how much light is appropriate for specific visual tasks are useful, but designers of complex spaces are likely to deal with far more than simply visual task performance. Some spaces can be effectively addressed by studying a visual task - like performing surgery or reading work materials - and determining the exact amount of light appropriate for that task. A designer concerned with the overall experience - mood, interaction, and visual impact of a space - must take a much more holistic approach that involves putting the right intensity, color and texture of light onto the right surfaces to create maximum effect.
When we place light with care, the result is a more profound statement likely created with less total light.
This focused application of “specific light on specific surfaces” has its foundation in four important relationships between light and human color vision:

• Adaptation: adapting to bright or dark situations;
• Brightness: contrast between surfaces and their surroundings;
• Phototropism: attraction to lighted surfaces and objects;
• Vertical Vision: tendency to look around us rather than above or