LED economy
Shanghai-Yunnan, 22nd January 2010
TodayI am travelling to Yunnan to visit the sites of two of our hospitality projects. It is a near 5 hour journey out of Shanghai with a transit stop in Kunming, plenty of time to think! The reason I am heading this blog with the title “LED economy” is that I was wondering whether the application of LED (or new technologies in general) is economically and proportionally linked to the distance away from the developed world centers. While I am not saying that Yunnan province is under developed, it is obviously a more rural area and not as fast paced and leading edge compared to world cities such as Shanghai, Paris or New York. Hence you would expect the economy of scale in the use of new technologies such as LED to be at a much lower level. Is that really so?
I believe that it has much to do also with expectation levels. We don’t really expect the same facilities, comfort and luxury in the rural countryside as in the city. Needs are different. Priorities are different. I mentioned lighting levels in my blog yesterday. I remember well one of my early lighting designs for an office building in Pakistan. At the time (I was working for Philips’ lighting design centre in Eindhoven then) promoting 500 lux as the norm for office lighting seemed well out of place with most local offices I visited, struggling to get past 50 lux!
Are people expecting LED as the new norm in more “rural” areas? Not really… they just need light! Light at an affordable cost. However interestingly with sometimes limited power supply available LED is possibly becoming more popular applied in combination with solar energy then in big cities.
PS just came back from my dinner with the client. Would you believe the only lighting in the outdoor restaurant pavilion were two bare incandescent lamps, some colored rope light and some tree lights! Not much indeed but it was certainly enough for ambiance
Lighting standards
Huangzhou, 21st January 2010
Now this may be a touchy subject, but interesting nevertheless. It was triggered by my discussion with the hotel operator in regards to their operations standards. Hotel operators generally have their own manual which states guidelines and standards for all possible applications, lighting included. Most of the lighting guidelines however are based on past experience rather than future requirements. I cheekily asked him if they would actually check the lighting levels on commissioning of the project. To which he replied that they would only do that if they are not happy with the end result. It is a bit the same with our contracts, nobody really looks at the contractual terms and conditions unless there is serious unhappiness about the performance! This is my point today and sort of a continuation on my entry yesterday.
There is a saying that rules are there to be broken…but while rules and regulations (and lighting standards in this case) are a very important part of our profession, its application must be carefully measured against the actual need and requirements. Let’s not forget that many lighting standards have been put together by people of whom some have strong links to the manufacturing industry. Commercial interest in promoting high lighting levels for instance can therefore not be denied. I think we should not blindly apply lighting standards, just because the lighting standards say so. Of course if there are serious legal implications we can’t just ignore the standards. But at least informed decisions can be made.
I think the answer from the operator really said it all. Why enforce standards if the end result is more than satisfactory! I said it before.. we don’t design for lux meters, we design for people!
Creating the visual experience
Shanghai, 20th January 2010
Over the last two days I have been attending a design workshop with the interior designer as a kick off to a new hotel project. As can be expected a lot of the discussion at this early stage revolves around space planning and (as the interior designer likes to call it) the actual sensory experience that guests can experience when entering the hotel and using its facilities. While we as lighting designers generally have not yet been involved in the overall design concept at this stage, it is important to understand the design intent and proposed moods as early as possible so we can develop the lighting concept in support. The workshop serves to present the concept and allow specialist consultants like ourselves to provide suggestions and ideas to make the concept work.
But it takes quite some experience to be able to provide relevant and meaningful input. It requires the lighting designer to understand the spatial qualities, proportions and most of all the material finishes and the resulting visual environment that lighting in the space would create.
We of course are concerned with the visual experience and its resulting effect on the mood, the feeling of the guest and the overall quality of the experience. Lighting can make or break this overall experience. Hence what to light (or not), balance of brightness, architectural rhythm, colour and general quality of the light, the visual enhancement of architectural features and artwork together with its lighting controls are obvious lighting design issues to consider. Not to forget the smooth integration of day and night time experience!
Understanding the original design concept of the overall visual experience is a major part of the foundation for a successful end result. And if it is not present in the concept we have to make sure it gets there!
My low-carbon life
Shanghai, 19th January 2010
No I am not talking about my diet! I am referring to a new campaign that started in China to create awareness about carbon producing products and habits. Following the Copenhagen summit in Denmark recently China has committed to significantly reduce their carbon emission levels by the year 2020. Therefore they need full cooperation from the general public. I haven’t seen much of the campaign yet but I am sure lighting will feature in it at some point of time. Many other countries around the world are embarking on similar awareness campaigns.
So as lighting designers what can we do? Of course best is to engage the client on this subject if they have not brought it up as part of the design brief. But some clients are not really that into it certainly if it costs more money. So we need to do it subtly. Maybe we can reduce the number of lighting points in non critical areas. Maybe we can use a new generation 35W halogen lamp instead of a 50W one. Maybe we can set our dimming scenes 10% lower. Maybe we can use CFL or LED instead of incandescent. I think there are many small ways that in the end can add up to a significant reduction…. I encourage readers to share any suggestions on this issue! …
We tend to light up everything because that is what we do, right? But a lighting design is as much about what to light as it is about what NOT to light! Finally we do not design for lux meters! We design for people! So lighting standards aside, we need to assess case by case what lighting is really needed in a space. If we all start implementing a more “low-carbon” lighting design style, we also will greatly contribute to reducing the carbo emmissions.
World Expo Shanghai
Shanghai, 18th January 2010
China president Hu Jintao himself came to visit the site the last few days to make sure the World Expo is on track. The Expo is due to open to the public in Shanghai later (in May) this year. Like the Beijing Olympics, China wants to show the world what it is capable of and under the theme banner “Better City, Better Life” has embarked on what is to become the biggest and the best Expo ever. I have seen the site grow over the last two years from clearing the land to the various country pavilions that are now arising out of the ground. The China pavilion will remain as a landmark building after the expo just as the Paris Eifel Tower did after the Paris world expo sometime last century.
At night we can already see lighting tests going on and one can easily imagine how much LED and multi -media effects will be featured. The Expo will actually feature an area dedicated to best practice in lighting! As can be expected the Expo will feature the most innovative (lighting) technologies and will be as green as green can be.
While many national pavilions have their own national teams working on it, the overall infra-structure is proudly developed by local Chinese enterprises. I have been to site and must say it is looking quite impressive. While we are not directly involved in the Expo itself we have many projects that are developed in conjunction with the aim to be ready by the time the Expo opens its doors and an influx of visitors is expected on the Shanghai shores, hotels and commercial developments predominantly.
No doubt I will be reporting back later this year on the lighting when I will visit the Expo site and its multitude of innovative and futuristic country pavilions!
When to engage a lighting designer
Shanghai, 17th January 2010
You may wonder why I bring up this subject on a Sunday. Would you believe I just had a meeting this morning with a potential client? Welcome to life in China … The client approached us yesterday after being referred to us. They are in Shanghai but go back to Northern China tonight and wanted to meet us before going back. Sometimes a little goodwill can do wonders. We’ll see…
From the preliminary information we got it seems the buildings (a big commercial development) are about finished and they want to have a grand opening sometimes in September. Though still 9 months to go (sounds like a pregnancy 🙂 ) it seems that we are left with an agonizing short time to come up with a lighting design and related documentation so site can procure and install the lights. Somehow they had overlooked the façade lighting of the building and while the scaffolding is still up they are hoping we can quickly come up with the lighting…ho-ho not so fast!
There are obviously no electrical provisions for lighting in the façade so unless a lighting concept is developed properly it will not be easy to do anything. With Chinese New Year coming up in February it will therefore be near impossible to call tender in March as they have in mind.
This brought me to the main topic I wanted to share today. When is the best time to engage a (professional) lighting designer? My typical answer is always: “It is never too early”. The earlier we are involved the better as we can then really integrate the lighting into the architecture rather than have the lights as an obvious add-on. It allows us to brainstorm concepts with the architect in the arly stages and even influence the building design to accomodate the lighting asa consiously designed part of the buildng.
Seeing is believing!
Shanghai, 16th January 2010
As the old adagio goes, seeing is believing and nothing is more true than in lighting. We may think we know how the lighting effects are going to be but until we finally see the results it is often an (educated) guess. The more experience we have a s lighting designers, the better we can anticipate the end result.
But we don’t have to wait till the end to assure ourselves that the designed lighting is as desired. In fact we should never wait till the end. That is where our relationship with the lighting manufacturers come in. We can’t design from behind our desks and based on catalogue information only. We need to check out the light fixtures, hold them in our hands and visually inspect how they look, feels and its light interacts. With lighting technology moving fast forward and so many new products being released in the market we have to assure ourselves in the early stages of the design process that our lighting selection is the right one.
Many years ago I made a mistake by selecting a ceiling light without properly checking its dimensions, just based on the catalogue image. It looked nice and stylish. But when it was eventually installed it looked totally out of proportion as it was so much smaller in reality! Oops…
It is specifically the lighting effects that we need to see and understand. Over the years experience will help narrowing down the process of selection. But honestly, with all my years of experience I find it still amazing how much I still learn from actually seeing the lighting effects! In our office we have implemented the rule to always (at least as much as reasonably possible) make sure to “see” new light fittings before specifying them in a project. Seeing is believing and when we specify a product we need to truly believe ourselves that we are specifying the best possible solution!
Taking the LEED
Singapore, 15th January 2010
Having your lighting design contribute to achieve a level of “green” classification is fast becoming a standard part of our activities. I would say that right now nearly 1/3 of our new projects require us to design towards compliance with LEED from the US or BCA’s Green Mark, etc. Specifically LEED requires quite a lot of paperwork.
But there are still a lot of questions about these new green standards and as a design community we are just starting to get to grips with what exactly is required. It appears that the guidelines to achieving these green standards are very area specific and thus we find many applications not really covered in terms of targets for lighting.
In one of our projects (railway train stations) we are confronted exactly with this issue. The client, being the governments transport authority, wants to achieve gold classification according to BCA’s Green Mark system, but found that the available descriptive guidelines do not really apply to the stations. So it has embarked to creating their own Green Mark guidelines specifically for this application which it will then submit to BCA for approval. I am sure that there are many other project applications that struggle to find ways to apply the relatively limited “green” guidelines to their situation.
While lighting is only a very small part of the overall LEED or Green Mark guidelines, it may be good for our lighting design industry to put our heads together and look at ways to develop one good common sense guideline for achieving green standards, rather than trying to comply with various different guidelines that originated from organizations with little affinity to lighting.
Lighting incentive schemes
Singapore, 14th January 2010
Many cities around the world take to urban redevelopment and city beautification to attract visitors and entice people to live and work in their city. A vibrant city generally means a vibrant economy and a positive balance in the books…is that not the bottom line for most? Many cities in Europe and the US and major capital cities in Asia have moved into bringing their city to this next level.
It is not difficult to see that a lighting strategy is something that forms part of the plans when a city government embarks on this road. However the stumble block often encountered is that not all buildings and structures are owned by the city, on the contrary, most are in private hands. So while governments can impose lighting directions on to their own properties (though you would be surprised how little the proverbial “right pocket” knows of or communicates with its “left pocket” 🙂 ), it is a different proposition to get private owners to fork out money to light up their building. I was confronted with it again when one of our clients called me to discuss the lighting requirements for their new development in Singapore’s CBD (Central Business District).
After previous failed attempts Singapore realized that it had to give something back to motivate building owners and has now adopted a lighting incentive scheme to facilitate and stimulate private owners and developers to apply lighting to the exterior of their buildings in a bid to make the city more vibrant. The incentives come in two different forms. One is a cash grant, the other an additional GFA (Gross Floor Area) both expressed as a percentage of the lighting cost. The extra GFA can be used in the planning of new buildings or renovation / extensions of existing ones.
The scheme has been in place for about 2 years now and gradually we start seeing the results. It is a good example that in life you have to give and take to make it win-win for all.
Balloon man
Singapore, 13th January 2010
Last night I attended the wedding of one my close friends in Singapore. We have known each other since my arrival in Singapore nearly twenty years ago and it was great to see him and his beautiful wife finally tie the knot after all these years! In business he is known as the “balloon man”. Not the one you see at fairy grounds though. He has built a unique business with illuminated balloons, all sizes, all shapes, for all different applications. The gardens at his own wedding party were of course beautifully illuminated with his balloons. So how can I not blog about it.
It is really a totally different side of lighting. Modern lighting technology is hidden inside a translucent balloon with diameters varying in sizes from small to several meters. The advantage of this technology is that it can illuminate a large area from a single point in a very comfortable and diffuse way. The balloon can easily be installed and when folded back fits in a golf bag. Hence it has been a great success for lighting up work sites, emergency rescue operations but also special events (his balloons were floating the stadium at the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony) and other festive or seasonal activities. Those who have been at the recent Singapore F1 Grand Prix’s will have seen all his balloons lighting up the vast public areas. By adding a jacket with graphics or colours it also can easily be converted into signage, advertising or just decorative markers. It is a very energy efficient and economical, but certainly innovative way to light up larger areas.
We are currently investigating the balloon option for the lighting of a golf course rather than using standard poles with floodlights. It is nice to have alternative ways of lighting outside our regular box of lighting tricks.
The long awaited book compilation of Martin's first year of blogging is available. Order now.
Feedspot Top 100 Lighting Blogs