Lighting Design House

Lighting rocks

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..

Lighting (re)surfaces

Mary Rushton-Beales and Gordon RoutledgeThe newly (re)launched Lighting magazine has commissioned a series of features from Lighting Design House’s Mary Rushton-Beales. The series explains issues related to lighting all types of surfaces and uses a ‘sketchbook’ format with illustrations of the type often used to explore concepts at an early stage of lighting design. It begins with the ubiquitous but tricky medium of glass. The series is mainly aimed at the magazine’s large readership of architects, as well as lighting professionals.

Although Lighting magazine has been in existence since 1969, it was recently relaunched with new publishers in the UK and USA. The revivified magazine has a new high-end format and production values. Mary’s ‘sketchbook’ sits alongside extensive articles on subjects such as architect Jorn Utzon’s use of natural light; bioluminescence and other topics relating to ‘illumination in architecture’.

www.lighting.co.uk

Image: Mary Rushton-Beales and Lighting magazine co-founder Gordon Routledge

The scourge of ‘spec busting’

Mary Rushton-Beales of Lighting Design House will tackle the perennial problem of ‘protecting the specification’ as one of featured speakers at an online conference.

Known as ‘spec busting’, the widespread practice by contractors of substituting poorer-performing fittings and sources for those carefully researched and chosen by the designer, undermines lighting schemes and short-changes clients.

Mary will be tackle the subject at the Online Lighting Solutions Conference hosted by Lighting and Interiors Online. The conference will look at all aspects of lighting specification and procurement facing the lighting industry. All the conference materials will be available at any time for six months for £9.99 paid to the organisers.

Light, colour and emotion

CIBSE event features Monocrom ‘tasters’

Mary Rushton-Beales and Dr Meher Engineer to co-present in London
13 August 2015, 18:30-21:00

CIBSE, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, will host a CPD event led by Lighting Design House’s Mary-Rushton-Beales and Dr Meher Engineer of Monocrom, examining the links between light, colour and emotional wellbeing. This seminar promises to be stimulating in more ways than one, since it includes demonstrations of the Monocrom Light Dome. The 400mm-diameter dome creates the illusion of infinite space filled with brilliant colour projections, a uniform field of monochrome light from chosen points anywhere on the visible spectrum.

Dome used for lighting design

Dr Meher Engineer and her colleagues at Monocrom have spent many years investigating the colour light, and wellbeing, factors recognised in CIBSE’s Lighting Guide 02: Hospitals and Health Care Buildings. Mary Rushton-Beales is an advocate of colour therapy and a visitor to Dr Engineer’s London practice where in addition to its use in therapy, lighting designers and interior architects use the Monocrom Light Dome to simulate coloured environments.

Title (On CIBSE site) Colour Dome In London
Date 13 August 2015, 18:30-21:00
Venue Pushkin House, Holborn, London WC1A 2TA

The event is open to non-members, but registration is essential via www.cibse.org or Eventbrite

Colour therapy is a complementary therapy. If you have a medical condition or health concerns you should seek guidance from your doctor or other medically qualified health care professional