Lighting fitness
Perth 1st July 2010
Back in Perth I can still feel my muscles aching! Being a lighting designer, contrary to popular belief, requires definitely a certain level of fitness! We do not just sit behind a desk or computer doing design work or meet around a table looking over plans and discussing lighting issues. We actually do physically move around! An important part of our job is to go to site to monitor the progress of installation or to commission a lighting installation as I did over the last two days.
The thing with working sites is that everything is very rudimental, dusty, dirty (sometimes wet and muddy) with lots of working activity going on that requires you to wear a safety helmet. You don’t have nicely paved pathways or neat car parks, there are no elevators (certainly at the beginning of construction) to move up the floors. So you end up ruining your shoes in the site dirt, and being exhausted of climbing up and down 10 floors thru stinky (workers have a habit of not using the site toilets) and dimly lit, rough concrete stairway… definitely requiring a certain level of fitness! I am not even mentioning doing that under humid and hot tropical conditions….
When commissioning a project we have the added factor of having to work late, which messes up your eating and sleeping habits. Lighting is generally commissioned once the sun has set so we can fully assess the impact of the night and the performance of the lighting. It wouldn’t be the first time I have worked through the night to do my measurements, focussing and programming.
Last night I had to take measurements on a 2 hectare sports field. While officially a grid pattern of 5m was used for calculations we skipped some less critical areas but you can imagine in general the number of lighting points that has to be measured. We measured them at ground level so at every point you have to kneel down to take the measurement, then get back up your feet, walk several meters and do it again. We did that three times as we measured the levels the full, half and training level lighting steps. Do that a couple of hundred times and you will agree that some stamina and fitness is required!
Lighting calculations, how accurate are they?
Kalgoorlie, 30th June 2010
Waiting for my flight back to Perth… It has been a good trip, happy and satisfied clients and some new work in the pipeline, what more can I wish! I wrote last night about our site measurements to confirm that the lighting installation was compliant with our original design specifications. References for our compliance check were the lighting calculations that we had executed with the actual manufacturers photometric IES data files. So you would expect in this case that what you calculate is what you would measure on site.
Fact is that calculations are as good as the operators input. If you don’t understand the workings of light and the impact that variable input components have on the outcome of the calculations, calculations can be way of the reality on site. Some manufacturers paint rosy pictures of lighting level results to promote their fittings by omitting depreciation, light output or utilization factors (maybe purposely or just because they don’t know). There are many other variable parameters such as reflection coefficients, grid calculation spacing and height, aiming angles, light fitting position coordinates, etc, etc. Quite frankly if you know how to operate a calculation program you can pretty much manipulate the outcome the way you want it! So as a professional lighting designer it is up to you to make sure the lighting calculations are as accurate as possible as clients have a habit of taking your calculations as a biblical reference for assessing your work!
So step one is to make sure your input parameters are as realistic as possible and this very much comes down to the lighting designer’s experience, but still the results are theoretical. Assuming the calculations are realistic you then need to check the practical implementation and again there are many variables. Lighting positions maybe off, aiming angles maybe slightly different (some lights have only a very rough scale for reference), measurement points may be different, etc. But these can easily be checked. What is more difficult to the untrained person are the “hidden” variables. Voltage drops, wrong lamp or incorrect lamp mounting (out of focus), wrong reflector and so on. All these little things add up to the real lighting level results.
It is therefore easy to see that the final accuracy depends on input as well as output variables. Garbage in is garbage out!
Singing in the rain
Kalgoorlie, 29th June 2010
Tonight I commissioned a sports oval in the city of Kalgoorlie, the capital of the Goldfields, about 500 km east of Perth. The new lighting installation was a follow up on our lighting master plan to upgrade all main sports facilities in the city to comply with Australian Standards for the various sports. This sports facility has already been handed over by the contractor to the City and is now in full use by the local community. The previous installation was non complying to the lighting standards, very glary and most of all producing a great amount of spill light as a result, much to the complaint of surrounding residents. The upgraded lighting installation has been received with much appreciation with the local community singing praise on the new lighting. One resident apparently called the city council to thank them and saying he could now finally sleep at night!
We came in tonight to officially sign off on the project, inspect the new installation and confirm that the lighting levels and uniformity are now indeed compliant with the applicable lighting standards. Armed with lux meters and a measurement grid plan we went on to measure the lighting levels of the various switching steps for the more than 2 hectare sports ground. Our lighting design called for training, junior play and competition lighting levels.
The interesting point I wanted to raise today is whether rain has any effect on the lux level readings? Half way through our lux level readings we got surprised by a rain shower that obviously got us wet but also hampered the process. I continued in the rain but wondered in how far the actual measurements would be affected…surely the rain drops act as a deflector causing a diffusing and redirection of the light. We did not really measure a great difference in the end result, but I would say that the impact would be less then 10%. I must clarify that we carried out the measurements with handheld lux meters which obviously result in tolerances in regards to the readings as well.
The rain wasn’t too heavy and stopped after a while but it was an interesting moment of reflection.
Banks
Perth, 28th June 2010
Banks are generally seen as unfriendly and out to take any cent of you they can get. Even if you have an account and don’t use it they still find ways to charge you for doing nothing! Our general perception of banks therefore is not really very high. Last year alone the main banks in Australia made a combined profit of several billions (!) of dollars. As it turns out they also charged overdrawn fees many times over what it really costs them and a class action by the general public is now underway to recover these charges. Meanwhile the banks have been extremely “nice” to customers.
Anyhow, the reason that I talk about the banks today (I had to go there this morning for some business) is that many of them over the last couple of years have embarked on what they call “redefining the customer experience”. You will notice now when you enter some of the well known banks that it is a much more sophisticated and highly designed interior environment with lots of personal attention. Someone greets you on arrival, ask if they can help you, directs you to the right place or sorts out any of your queries. The interiors look warm and welcoming with varied and colourful material finishes and rather than an unfriendly cashier behind bars you are received in a relaxed setting with seats and a “discussion” table.
Lighting design as a consequence has followed suit and banks now boost multiple lighting systems with dedicated lighting for the various tasks including table lamps and lighting for artworks or displays. No more cold fluorescent general lighting. Low brightness warm white light to blend and harmonise with the new interior concept. It is all part of the corporate identity and image that banks want to project. Moreover the identity concept is repeated in every branch so there is a sense of recognition when you enter. At least now we can “see” where our money goes 🙂
Budgets
Perth, 27th June 2010
Weekends are generally to take your foot of the (work) accelerator and spend some quality time with your loved ones. For me a time to catch up with my kids when I am in Australia. But it is also a good time to catch up on some back log work undisturbed… I managed to catch up on some of that work and one of the things I went through is to analyse a clients budget provision for the façade lighting of one of our projects. When you get to do this early in the project a lot is guesswork and assumptions, even though it is based on our past experience.
Working out a budget for the client is part and parcel of our scope of work. It is really important to log in a budget with the client as early as possible so we are all on the same page right from the beginning and do not get into endless abortive work to deconstruct our lighting design to meet an “impossible” budget. Unfortunately budgets are not always logged in when we do our design (or deliberately not told to us). We always ask for it but nearly always (in Asia at least) get the answer they don’t have one and would we please provide them with one. Then once we work out one miraculously they tell us they don’t have such budget?
In order to prepare a good budget for a client we really need to have the concept worked out in detail. We then need to decide on the light fitting systems the required quantity and their quality level. Not everything needs to be made of “gold”. You can get from A to B in a Toyota as well as in a Rolls Royce. So we need to choose the level of sophistication and comfort in relation to the project requirements. There are also many unknowns in the costing process. The budget quote we get from the supplier is for the equipmment only not necessarily the price that the client ultimately will pay as there may be many intermediate people in the supply chain that need a cut of the pie, like the local agent, the contractor, etc. It wouldn’t be the first time that our original budget estimates works out more than double by the time it has gone to tender!
Cultural lighting shocks
Perth, 26th June 2010
Back in Perth and it always strikes me how different people experience and live life here. Climate and life style are so different from Shanghai. I guess many of us are familiar with the culture shock book series describing how each country has its own cultural heritage, habits and way of living. Does this also apply to lighting? Are there any cultural lighting shocks? It may seem a trivial question, but when you start thinking about it and also reflect on experiences from travelling around the globe, you realize that there are definitely some differences. But they are not necessarily cultural only and therefore not easy to classify and quantify.
There are the obviously different needs between the rich and the poor, between people living in the urban and rural environments or people living in developed and developing countries. Money (life style!), availability of energy and other resources play a major role here and will directly influence the priorities in regard of peoples lighting needs and the quality of light required. In remote and rural areas where agriculture and farming are dominant the lighting will be mostly basic and functional. In urban city environments, lighting will be more sophisticated and diversified. In developing countries the available power grid may not be stable and sufficient to sustain elaborate lighting systems and you will find that consequently the lighting standards are of a much lower recommendation then that of developed countries. That ultimately reflects in the quality and visual appreciation of lighting in general. People in some of these countries are already happy that they have light!
In general I experience that in Asia people like brighter, expressive and more colorful lights, while in Western countries the lighting is more measured, formal and organized. In the same breath I can also mention that people in the warmer countries (closer to the tropics) tend to like cooler white light colors whilst the cooler countries (further away from the tropics) prefer the warmer tones. This “lighting” shock is easier to understand as it directly relates to the psychological effect of the lighting. So geographical location and climate have definitely an influence on the way people use and apply lighting as a result they have different life styles and different lighting needs.
Is the best always winning?
Perth, 25th June 2010
The world cup soccer is reaching the end of the group stages and there have been quite some upsets and surprises! France and Italy eliminated, who would have predicted that at the start of the tournament? But winners are always right, isn’t it? Having a great team or great players is not always a guarantee for success! Many factors play a role before success is achieved, form of the day, individual fitness, knowing your opponent’s weakness and little things like luck may determine who wins in the end. Outcome is not always predictable, that is also why betting is so popular!
In lighting design we encounter similar things. It is not always the best lighting designer that wins a contract, a good lighting designer not always delivers the best possible end result. This is because the “little things” that happen along the way. We win a contract sometimes on merit and past track record, sometimes on price, sometimes based on our relationships (remember sometimes it is not what we know but who we know!) We have days were we do brilliant presentations and impress the client with our knowledge, we have days were we somehow don’t have our act together or don’t “click” with a client. It may just the difference between wining and loosing…
When we do our lighting design sometimes the lighting concept works brilliantly in harmony with architecture or interiors, sometimes we just can’t get it right! And it is not always our fault, material choices, unforgiving color combinations, etc, and often uncompromising fellow consultants lead to an end result that is far from its potential. A successful (winning) endresult is the culmination of great team work, understanding of each others work and expertise and making sure it is brought together in perfect harmony.
The leadership challenge
Singapore, 24th June 2010
Interestingly two major “leaders” were challenged and removed from their posts today. In Australia Kevin Rudd did not survive the challenge to his leadership and is now replaced as prime minister by his deputy Julia Gilliard, now the first ever woman to become prime minister in Australia. In the USA, general McChrystal, chief military commander of all American operations in Afghanistan, was sacked after voicing his criticism towards Obama in Rolling Stone magazine and has promptly been replaced by General Petraeus. Both Rudd and McChrystal are assumingly competent leaders but sometimes it only takes a little thing to undo their leadership. As lighting designers our leadership is also continuously being challenged. We are challenged by our clients and fellow project consultants and we are challenged internally by our own staff.
Our clients need us to take the lead in lighting design and to show our expertise and determination in decision making. This means that we have to be diligent and on top of things so we can reply and clarify any challenges thrown at us by the client or project team members. We develop our designs with knowledge and with a purpose and reason, so in principle we do not have to fear any challenges. On the contrary when we are well prepared challenges are most welcome and needed to make sure we progress the design with full understanding and appreciation of the client. It is only when we are ill prepared that challenges undermine and possibly undo our leadership.
Our staff needs us to show leadership too. Confident and decisive handling of design issues rubs of to the team and strengthens the overall belief in the design concept and strategy itself. While leadership means leading it also means delegating responsibility. Responsible staff will treasure that trust and grow with you, but sometimes staff do not know how to handle that responsibility or worse abuse of it. I recently had to let go of one staff who repeatedly ignored my directions, to the effect that he changed my design to replace it with his own ideas. I am all for initiative and fully support personal thinking however as a leader it is my task to assure it is all done within our vision and company standards. Ignoring these directions is a challenge to my leadership.
The edge of darkness
Singapore 23rd June 2010
I am one of those lucky people that can sleep anywhere, anytime, in full daylight or in total darkness. I guess extensive travelling has made that a prerequisite…Many people though have trouble sleeping anywhere else then in their own familiar bed. Some people like total darkness when sleeping; some need a little night light to feel “safer”. Last night I slept in my own familiar bed, but enjoyed a newly installed air-conditioner. Nice and cooling in this tropical climate, as I don’t really like sleeping in the heat. But what struck me is that nowadays all types of electric equipment have some form of LED lighting integrated!
After I switched of the lighting I was surprised at the remaining brightness in the room. When looking around I noticed the yellow and a blue indicator lights on the air conditioner. Complementing these were a TV indicator light, a switch indicator light and the alarm clock light. Five mini LED lights points within a few square meters. Add to that the city lights seeping through the curtains and you have a room in the middle of the night that is safe to walk around in!
These “damn” little LED’s are nearly like weed… they pop up everywhere nowadays! Switch on your mobile phone at night…it’s like a torch light! I actually often use my mobile phone’s display light for way finding on a project site for instance when we climb the unlit stairs of a building under construction! Some of you may be familiar with this…
My point is that it becomes more and more difficult to actually create real darkness! Ever been in theatre when the lights go out…only to be reminded of where all the exit doors (emergency signs) are! Most hotels require the lighting designer to provide for a night light in the guestrooms…but with all these built-in LED indicator light gadgets, do we really still need it?…
Lighting and the economy 3
Singapore, 22nd June 2010
Having offices in Australia, China and Singapore allows me to travel and compare the lighting design work we have in the various parts of this world. It is really interesting to see that the different countries and I guess I could say economies, have somehow a direct impact on the type of projects. I generalize a bit but having travelled in this region I experience distinct differences, similar to the ways I described the pace of work in my blog about the speed of life.
We quote practically weekly for new projects but it is interesting to see how the type of projects varies from country, or better from region to region. A lot has to do with the state of the economy. Developed countries such as Australia have different type of projects then fast developing (and economically strong) nations such as China or India. While Australia is basically preserving its heritage through renovations, improvements and generally improving the quality and comfort of life Singapore is consolidating its developed nation status by reinforcing its basic infra structure and creating more developments in the social, cultural and entertainment sector. China is just developing anything that is basic to a growing economy.
Let me give you some examples: In Australia we find ourselves doing environmental lighting studies or lighting audits for compliance to safety and security regulations, lighting up heritage buildings, city landmarks or improving recreational public facilities. But in China there is basically none of this. We are mostly involved in mega mixed developments that incorporate residential living, hotel and serviced apartments all spiced up with extensive commercial facilities and surrounded by landscaping (most developments now need a 20-30% landscape component to balance the fast artificial buildings with natural elements). While Australia is more about the quality of living, China is more about quantity. People, who have made their riches from the increased spending power of the “ordinary” people, mostly in the residential sector, now show off by investing in building hospitality and retail outlets, nearly as a status symbol. Owning a few sports cars is not hip anymore…owning a few hotels or shopping malls now is the in-thing….and we are not complaining :).
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