Day lighting
Singapore, 18th March 2014
I mentioned in my blog yesterday that in my search for a suitable office space, the availability of natural day light is imperative. I can’t work in an office space devout of day light. I need that feedback about whether the sun shines, it rains, it is cloudy. I don’t mind being locked up in a windowless space for a little while for meetings and the like, but as my permanent work space I need my window of daylight, similar as I need my “daily dose” of daylight with my walks.
While I am typically a designer of artificial lighting and lighting effects, one of our acquired skills has to be how best to work with daylight minimising the artificial lighting (energy/cost saving) in the process. We are not typically trained as daylight specialists but it is a skill that we learn along the way to an extent that we can often aid and assist architects in designing spaces with a maximum in daylight. It comes with a lot of tricky “accessories” like heat and glare management, but it is a dialogue that we should always have and develop with the lead consultant. Likewise this discussion is also important with the interior designers as they may design blinds and curtains that not necessarily support maximising daylight use.
Unfortunately we are often brought into the piece when building designs are already completed, structures are fixed and if you are really unlucky, the whole interior design already locked in and approved. That makes our lighting design an add-on, not really ideal and turning back the design to improve daylight conditions are not always accepted with joy from the consultants who in their eyes had already completed and finished their work to approval. We often encounter big reluctance from the lead consultants to change anything at a later stage when it comes to improving lighting conditions. Not only because it incurs additional work but also because it may incur additional or a variation of costs…yet as a professional lighting designer it is our task to highlight these things to the client who has employed us whether the rest of the team like it or not. It just reinforces the point that it is never too early to engage a lighting designer! Daylight or not…
Light Watch 5-45: Creating daylight spaces can result in some interesting spaces and designs…
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