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

Seeing our environment as a collection of surfaces
Once we have adopted all of the subtleties of lighting design decisions into our intuition, we are ready to start placing light with meaning, conviction, and true relation to the design goals of our project. The helpful process for making lighting additions to our environment is to take what we know about our architecture and surroundings and visualize this environment as a collection of surfaces in darkness. From this starting point, we picture ourselves with the ability to paint light onto the specific surfaces that make up the space.
The more we know about the use and layout of a space, the better, but this visualization can be done with only the walls, floor and ceiling in our mind. We picture ourselves placing light onto each surface because this is exactly what all of our architectural luminaires are designed to do. All of the engineered reflectors and precision lamps have been tweaked and refined to give us total control of delivering light exactly where we want it. We can place light onto a wall, onto a table, onto a piece of art, up onto the ceiling, anywhere we feel the light belongs. A space visualized in total darkness is a blank canvas waiting for lighting design. The designer can imagine painting light onto surfaces as if with a brush or spray can. One-by-one, surfaces are lighted in this manner until the
Figure 12.1 The mental progression of visualizing a space as a collection of surfaces and painting light onto surfaces one by one.
desired lighting effect begins to emerge. Figure 12.1 illustrates the mental process of visualizing darkness and adding light one surface at a time.
Seeing surfaces for the materials that make them
Once we have established the mental picture of our environment as the surfaces that make it up, we take the next step and visualize the materials that make up these surfaces. This is where we
implement our intuitive knowledge of matching light texture, color and intensity to the specific materials with which we are building.
Texture: Think of the material texture and whether it should be revealed our concealed. Organic stone, concrete and wood may benefit from directional sources that show off the subtle textures by creating shadow through grazing and steep aiming angles. Imperfect walls or materials intended to appear smooth and flawless may benefit from diffuse sources located far from the material.
Color: Think of material color and what color light source will complement it. Cool-colored materials can be emphasized by cool sources like cool fluorescent, metal halide and LED’s. Warmer, richer materials, like wood and warm stone, benefit from warm sources like Incandescent. Keep in mind that warm fluorescent sources often appear warm to the eye, but actually do a poor job of rendering warm materials. Mock up any critical situations where the source needs to complement the color of the material.
Intensity: Think of material finish and what light intensity is suitable. Often times, light colored surfaces need very little additional light to make them stand out as bright surfaces and focal elements. Darker materials
may require considerably more light to serve as focal points. Some dark surfaces reflect so little light that they may not be worth lighting at all.