Lighting Design House

Residential lighting

Lighting for the home

Depending on the time of day and year, the lighting in your home needs to adapt to many different moods, ambient and functional requirements – and creating lit environments that respond to all these needs is the starting point of all our lighting designs. Choosing the right lighting technique, the best system for managing the control options, as well as styles and quantities of equipment creates spaces that provide both visual comfort and pleasure.


Added to this are electricity savings and the potential for enhancing the physical well being of everyone at home. It’s so enjoyable working directly with private clients who have usually waited for a long long time before finally changing their home lit environments.


Here’s a few examples of client briefs:

• We both get up really early so would love it if the bathroom lighting could be welcoming, invigorating and ‘sunny’ on cold, winter mornings.

• We want an atmosphere in the family room on winter afternoons that encourages the kids to focus on homework after school.

• We love our huge family room/kitchen/dining area but we need different lighting scenes to suit all the family’s differing activities.

• Its really important to highlight the statuette in the feature alcove; we bought it on honeymoon in Bali.

• There’s a lovely old garden feature we rescued from mum & dad’s garden we want it to be tastefully lit and clearly visible from the lounge.

• We need good clear light for when we read in the evening.. 

• We’d like to leave a low level light on the landing and in the bathroom at night so the children and grandparents can find their way to the bathroom easily.

• We want to be able to sometimes create a ‘disco’ feel in the evenings whether it’s the kids or the grown‐ups who want to party. And of course, a sophisticated restaurant atmosphere in the dining room for entertaining.

• We want every light source to be individually addressable by “smart” control and to change colour.

• We’d like seductive lighting in the bedroom – when we get precious time for ourselves.


We can work with you to create a truly lovely home atmosphere

Time – our most precious commodity?

I’ve been designing the lit environment for more than 30 years and I suppose it’s quite appropriate that my most difficult lighting challenge ever – in the entire 30 years – that was recently assigned to me by Artist Dawn Bendick – should have awareness of time at the heart of the artistic inspiration. Rather than paraphrase Dawn’s work you can read about how important time is for her and her work on this link:
http://www.theobservatory.co/index.php/projects/time-rocks/

The cast glass rocks – created by Dawn in collaboration with Acne Studios for their catwalk show – are sentinels of the past and the future – being moulds of ancient rocks that have been created with contemporary Alexandrite glass. This glass contained small amounts of rare earth minerals such as neodymium that reveal completely different colours according to the electrical characteristics of different white light sources. Dawn explained that it was this repeated variation in the colour of the glass that was essential to the success of the lighting for the catwalk show. Acne Studios had decided to bring the amazing glass rock stacks to London and display them in the window of their Flagship store at Dover Street for Fashion Week “and a few weeks more”.

A lighting design was needed that would replicate the catwalk lighting effects and vary continuously over the day and night. Cue many many lighting tests and experiments – bright sunlight, overcast skies, 2700k, 4000k, 6500k – high CRI light sources such as LED, Fluorescent and Metal Halide. And in the background HOW were we going to get these diverse light sources to dim or switch as we wanted – continuously over about 10 – 15 minutes?! So back to my time theme it seems entirely appropriate that to achieve what we wanted we used light sources and lighting techniques from the Nineties, Noughties and Twenty First decades.

So our intrepid band of lights included: From the Nineties high output compact fluorescent lamps 6500k, 95 CRI. From the Noughties point source metal halides 4000k, 85 CRI. From the 21st full spectrum colour LEDs, 90 plus CRI. To bring it all together we needed a bespoke control unit that could send dimming and switching signals at preset times, continuously throughout the weeks of display. Oh yes and we had to get all this installed into the window safely and neatly over a single night “get-in”. Time again.

The testing/planning and results are shown on the two gifs above. We’ve speeded them up to make the effects consistent. If you would like stills or further information please contact me or Dawn on
mailto:15observatory@gmail.com.

It took a lot of human beings too: massive thanks to: Acne Studios, Dawn Bendick, Phil, Howard & team at Commercial Lighting Systems, Roger & team at Light Projects, Brian & team at Multiload controls, Greg & team at Tomkins Electrical, Aaron & team at Checklist Property Maintenance and Andrew Tynan for the results photography..

Interior lighting: floor up or ceiling down?

I have taught Lighting at many different colleges all over the UK, mostly at degree level, on courses studying interior architecture, interior design and 3-D design. During that time I have honed eight simple rules that I ask students to follow in order to create a design-led lighting environment for their projects.

Daylight – More windows or fewer?

Consider how the space will look in natural light at different times of the day and year, whether there will be a need to control the daylight with blinds or other mechanisms, and how the varying brightness and colours of daylight will affect the space.

Brand/design concept

What is the theme, the look and feel you are aiming for? How can light be used to enhance that? Which lighting/architectural technique or which colour of light is most appropriate?

Function

Start the plan with light in the right place so that the space can function effectively – this could be as simple as allowing for task lighting for a desk or as complicated as designing an entire artist’s studio with variable light according to the latitude and longitude of their galleries – then build up layers from there to create a more complete space.

Layers

Use more than one technique so that a lit picture can emerge that can be changed at different times of the day to make the space feel different according to personal preference or practical needs

Balance brightness; control glare

For much of the time the natural world looks right even though there are many different levels of brightness. For this technique to work with artificial light it is essential ensure that the brightness does not cause glare. This is effectively worked through using a 3D model and lighting design software such as AGI32.

Overlay the ceiling and floor plans

It seems obvious, but it is easy to get carried away with a ceiling design theme without considering how it relates to the floor plan beneath. So overlay the two or build it in 3D.

Detail, detail, detail

If the estate agent’s mantra is location, location, location, then the interior lighting designer’s should be to ensure that the details work. Check the size of the product, how it is fixed, how it can be integrated with the structure, and how it can be maintained – whether it is a set of illuminated shelves or a backlit ceiling – all require impeccable detailing.

Control

Natural light varies enormously from time of day to time of year – to make us human beings feel more comfortable, artificial light should be able to vary too. Controls – whether linked to a group of switches or dimmers or a state of the art remote control device – are an essential tool in achieving this site cialis comparatif.

Light is an inexpensive finish

In comparison to other finishes, altering the lighting effects are usually the most cost-effective way to make a space feel different. So do not overlight. Have an eye on the final lit ‘picture’.
Mary Rushton-Beale

Media: Retail Focus

Retail needs a mix of sources

Retail Focus recently looked at the role of natural light in shops and shopping centres

Caption to comeRetail Focus recently looked into the complex issue of integrating natural and artificial lighting. Daylight is continually changing in intensity and direction. Because it is full spectrum light it shows objects and materials in their true colours by because light is a form of energy it also has photochemical effect and causes some material s to fade or degrade. Lighting designers use tools including software to model its behaviour, mitigate its effects and choose the right artificial sources for day and night.

‘Daylighting is excellent where you have food courts and shopping centres,’Lighting Design House principal May Rushton-Beales told the magazine. ‘But for retail space to be successful you need to highlight products. I think you can save more energy and gain more benefits in a retail scheme or shop with a really, really carefully considered artificial lighting scheme than with a daylight scheme alone.’

Full article