Architectural Lighting Design: A Practical Guide

Description

A Introduction Beauty is revealed by light and the delicate play between light, shade and colour. When correctly applied, good artificial architectural lighting has a natural quality that instinctively feels right and helps us to feel good. The need for lighting design rather than lighting that fulfils the regulatory and statutory requirements began half a century ago. RCHITECTURAL LIGHTING DESIGN BEGAN to get noticed in the 1950s in the United States and later spilled over to the UK and some other European countries. Lighting design is a fairly new job description. There aren’t many courses to enroll in if one wants to become a lighting designer. Not being able to influence what is taught in the few courses available leads many lighting design consultancies to educate their own future lighting designers. In fact, some consultancies prefer to foster their own talent to assure a good-quality basic training paired with a design philosophy that matches the company’s philosophy. Many lighting designers have either a design or architecture background and received their basic education and finishing at a consultancy. I myself am a product of this process and all I know has either been learned on the job or self-taught. Now, I have started to share my knowledge and experience with the newcomers arriving at our consultancy. This book is aimed at all new starters and the interested alike, and will hopefully become a foundation for architects and future lighting designers. Therefore, this book covers the technical aspects of lighting design as much as design-related features. The structure of the book allows a person not familiar with lighting to get a step-by-step introduction to lighting design. It starts with the basics of lamps and luminaires and the lighting tools available. These three first chapters form the technical groundwork of the book. The fourth chapter is the core of the book and explores the key aspects of lighting design, while the fifth chapter demonstrates what deliverables are expected and how to present them. All explanations are backed up by images and diagrams throughout, though most of the architectural images used in this book have been saved for the final chapter. Rather than finishing with case studies of successfully executed jobs, this book closes with pitfalls, as a successful lighting design scheme depends as much on well-executed details and the avoidance of pitfalls as it does on its overarching concept. This book will not teach you how to be creative and come up with a great lighting concept, but it does offer the tools and advice to create the structure of knowledge and the safety net you undoubtedly will need to do so. Cover Page Half Title Title Page Copyright Contents Introduction Chapter 1 The Basics – Lamps Chapter 2 Luminaires Chapter 3 Treatments and Techniques Chapter 4 Understanding the Project – What Questions to Ask Chapter 5 The Services and Deliverables Chapter 6 Common Pitfalls Appendix – A Checklist of Potential Pitfalls Index