Lighting, the natural way
China, 6th December 2009
Today has been a sunny day with a near cloudless blue sky, a rare sight in Shanghai! It seems to bring out the cheerful side in people. People go out to enjoy (how nice this happens on a Sunday!) the nice weather with their children family or friends. You can definitely see more smiles then usual…
Sunny daylight with blue skies definitely brings out more cheerfulness in people then cloudy grey and overcast skies. We know in our lighting designs how “cool” light is more businesslike, people tend to get on with their business, while “warm” light relaxes and make people stop and smell the roses. So we apply this “natural” way of lighting in our designs accordingly. Where you want people to get on with their business (like supermarkets, offices, sports facilities, etc) we use light colors with a dominant cool color, where we want people to relax and enjoy (retail shopping, restaurants, entertainment spaces, etc) we apply colors with more warm tone dominance.
Likewise sunny daylight creates sharp contrasts between light and shadows while overcast days result in more monotone and diffuse light ambiances. We can take great inspiration from observing daylight conditions with its rich palette of colors and bright nesses and apply that in our lighting designs for the night. We should apply this variation of light without fearing the strong shadows and changing brightness patterns. ..it’s natural!
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