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lighting magic and energy saving

Berlin, Friday 30th October 2009
It is actually past midnight when I write this entry, but hey, I went on a city tour tonight with many of my convention friends, had dinner and went clubbing afterwards, all courtesy of Se’lux the sponsor for the evening. Thank you! So my reflection of the day has to be on the city tour where our tour guide introduced us to some of the city’s great landmark places such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichs Tag, Gendarme Platze, etc. My first impression (as compared to my Australian and Asian experience) was of a well organised and strategised lighting for the City. Obviously a lot of thought (and money) must have gone into developing and implementing an attractive lighting plan to bring out the city’s enormous heritage. I am not sure how much is government initiative and how much private building owners, but fact is that there is a level of serenity and attractiveness to the lighting of the places we visisted. A pleasant balance between building feature lighting and general lighting for circulation. But while the general feeling is pleasant and attractive, there is an underlying concern for energy wastage through glare and light loss. This is particularly descernable to the trained eye of professional lighting designers.

And this is exactly the key reflection for the day: how do we find the right balance between creating that wonderful and magical light effect that attracts us to enjoy the the buildings and urban environement at night versus the need to curb energy, minimise glare. The new legislation and compliance regulations towards energy saving and light pollution are getting more and more demanding (eg. LEED, etc) which will pose ever increasing challenges to the lighting designer in pursuit of that magical environment.

30. October 2009 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: lighting of the future | Leave a comment

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