Architectural lighting design
It can include manipulation and design of both daylight and electric light or both, to serve human needs.
[1] The objective of architectural lighting design is to balance the art and the science of lighting to create mood, visual interest and enhance the experience of a space or place whilst still meeting the technical and safety requirements.
The visual aspects of the light are those that are concerned with the aesthetics and the narrative of the space (e.g. the mood of a restaurant, the experience of an exhibition within a museum, the promotion of goods within a retail space, the reinforcement of corporate brand) and the non-visual aspects are those concerned with human health and well-being.
[8] As part of the lighting design process both cultural and contextual factors also need to be considered.
[23] One of the earliest proponents of architectural lighting design was Richard Kelly who established his practice in 1935.
[27][28] The process of architectural lighting design generally follows the architect's plan of works in terms of key project stages: feasibility, concept, detail, construction documentation, site supervision and commissioning.
[29][30] After the feasibility stage, where the parameters for the project are set, the concept stage is when the lighting design is developed in terms of lit effect,[31] technical lighting targets and overall visual strategy usually using concept sketches, renderings, or mood boards.
[32] Sunlight provides the greatest quality of light, rated 100 CRI, on the electromagnetic spectrum.
For example, it can help to ease seasonal affective disorder (SAD), it can provide people with the necessary vitamin D, and can assist in regulating circadian rhythms, or daily light and dark cycles.
Shading the light will normally decrease efficiency but increase the directionality and the visual comfort probability.
Each layer contributes a function to the space and often they work together to create a well composed lighting design.
[8] Photometric studies are performed to simulate lighting designs for projects before they are built or renovated.
In many cases these studies are referenced against IESNA or CIBSE recommended lighting practices for the type of application.
In practice, color temperature is only meaningful for light sources that do in fact correspond somewhat closely to the radiation of some black body (i.e. those on a line from red-orange via yellow and more or less white to blueish white); it does not make sense to speak of the color temperature of (e.g. a green or a purple light).
For simple installations, hand-calculations based on tabular data can be used to provide an acceptable lighting design.
Based on the positions and mounting heights of the fixtures, and their photometric characteristics, the proposed lighting layout can be checked for uniformity and quantity of illumination.
The computer program will then produce a set of contour charts overlaid on the project floor plan, showing the light level to be expected at the working height.
Computer modeling of outdoor flood lighting usually proceeds directly from photometric data.
The total lighting power of a lamp is divided into small solid angular regions.
As well as bulbs for normal illumination, there is a very wide range, including low voltage, low-power types often used as components in equipment, but now largely displaced by LEDs.
[citation needed] Fluorescent lamps consist of a glass tube that contains mercury vapor or argon under low pressure.
The inside of the tubes are coated with phosphors that give off visible light when struck by ultraviolet energy.
[51] Initially, due to relatively high cost per lumen, LED lighting was most used for lamp assemblies of under 10 W such as flashlights.
