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

Step 1: Experience life
Go places, meet people, and put ourselves in as many engaging situations as possible. This act is really a byproduct of life, and it is safe to say that nearly everyone does this simply by leaving the house each day.
Step 2: Assess the emotional effect
This step takes a little more dedication. It is the exercise of taking stock of your feelings or emotional state in a given situation or environment. This skill is the sort we credit poets, artists and philosophers as possessing.
Assessing how one feels is not automatic, and there are certainly people
who go about their daily lives never stopping to realize how an environment affects them.
Step 3: Identify the mechanisms responsible for the emotional effect
This step requires taking the time to identify what about the situation or environment is causing the emotional response we are experiencing. It is a
mental step in which only a few engage.
An example of this thought process might occur as follows:
Anyone can stand at the edge of a slow moving creek in the woods.
An enlightened person might take the time to realize the sense of peace, calm, tranquility and connection to nature that is present.
It is the designer who takes the time to recognize that these feelings are the product of the shifting breeze rustling in the reeds; the glint and flicker of sunlight on the water surface; and the earthy hues of green, brown and yellows.
With this awareness, when the designer is called upon to create an environment that delivers a feeling of calm, tranquility and peace, he or she knows that earthy tones, natural materials, and a specific quality of light and shade will provide the desired emotional response.
These ingredients do not need to be translated literally, but knowledge of
them will bring us one step closer to a design solution possessing depth, context and permanence.
To practice this procedure, we can take any piece of imagery, song, or
film and dissect it to figure out why it works. In music, art and film, nothing is done by accident, and each ingredient contributes to a specific effect.
Watch a favorite film or listen to a favorite song. Study these things with
the intent of identifying the emotions induced and then identifying the mechanisms responsible for the emotion. What becomes immediately apparent is that light quantity and quality play a dominant role in how we visualize an environment.