In control
China, 13th December 2009
Don’t you like being in control of your life and destiny? Of course you do. Then like me you must hate being sick! These are those moments that you feel helpless and just have to sit it out. I am down with the flu in cold and rainy Shanghai. Seems like half our team is having some symptoms of cold or flu. With H1N1 still around better be careful!
Anyhow what better reason than to talk about lighting controls! I do have clients who feel that sophisticated lighting controls are not necessary and that on- off switches should work as well. Their reasoning is that if you are a good lighting designer you should be able to design right on the required lighting levels. Fair enough… but to a certain extend. When it comes to mood and ambiance settings then these are obviously a more subjective matter. And what about the various daylight conditions? There are obviously many reasons why lighting controls are becoming a crucial tool in lighting design, not in the least in regards to energy saving! To make us more aware of our lighting usage habits, leading lighting control manufacturers are now providing controls with feedback information. Amount of energy used, amount of energy saved and other usage statistics. All to help us being more considerate in our lighting habits.
You would think that this is all common sense now. So why did it have to take a world debate on climate change to now actually do something about it?
Encounters with the 3rd dimension
China, 12th December 2009
Whenever I can I will make time to check our lighting drawings before they are issued to the client. I have a great team but I know that with my experienced eye, I can spot potential lighting issues faster then anybody else. Our documentation is mostly two dimensional, but the fact is that lighting effects are three dimensional. The ability to anticipate the effects of the lighting in a 3 dimensional space are key to a good end result.
I remember well the shock of coming to site in my early days to discover that what looked big on a two dimensional plan wasn’t that big anymore once the third dimension came in… the walls! And that is what I mean…having the ability to read two dimensional drawings as a three dimensional space and understanding how light will be distributed in that space and where light will be intercepted by these vertical surfaces. We all know about the unwanted scallops, the reflections, the glare created by lights that where planned perhaps not with full understanding of the three dimensional space. I say perhaps, because I know that a lot of things happen in the process of design and that some are beyond our control.
As a lighting designer it is crucial to have had these encounters with the third dimension to better anticipate how the lighting in the ceiling will not only relate to the floor plan but more importantly to the vertical elevations that make up the space!
New trends
China, 11th December 2009
Sometimes in our projects we come across something new. Some may be old concepts applied in a new environment or in a new way, some are really new and innovative. As I come across them, I will try to report them. Note that they may be new to me but already well known to others… 🙂
We recently started on a new project that has such a new and possibly trendsetting feature. The project is an up market residential high rise building where the feature is that you can park your car at your level doorstep! In other words you drive your car into an elevator which then lifts your car (!) up to, say, level 24 where the car is then parked. The car elevator is mostly glass (yes, make sure you have the breaks on!) allowing the elevator and the car to become a dynamic feature moving up and down the building. You can imagine that at night with some nice lighting it will become a rather interesting sight. The car is then parked just in front of your living room which has large windows so you can actually see (and I guess for some enjoy) your car from inside. The car becomes part of the visual scenery. The idea here again, is to provide some nice lighting (probably a few lighting scenes) for mood and ambience. Note that the parked car can also be viewed from the street! My car is not really worth displaying but I can imagine that for some this is an attractive proposition. The project is still in a confidential stage so I can’t mention the location, but I will report back at some time to let you know how that all worked out!
I would be keen to hear of any new trends or features encountered by others…please do share!
Show off or switch off?
China, 10th December 2009
I may as well continue on the topic of global warming and climate change. In a meeting today I presented the landscape and exterior lighting concept for one of our hotel projects. As most of you may well know, in general the “owner” and the “operator” of a hotel are not one and the same person. The “owner” is the one investing and building the hotel, the “operator” is the one who will run the hotel once finished. That comes at times with conflicting interests. The “owner” wants to minimize costs, the “operator” wants the best quality… which is not always compatible. But they generally share their desire to show off their newly completed property. Lighting is the obvious tool to achieve this desire and create an atractive visual impact at night.
But what I wanted to post today is the dilemma of wanting to show off your property through eye catching façade lighting and beautiful landscape lighting versus the growing public opinion and media pressure against “wasting light” and polluting the sky. Hence my title today… showing off or switching off. Besides ego there is an obvious commercial aspect to lighting up your property at night. But there is also a strong commercial (and now obvious environmental) aspect to reduce or even cut out energy consumption, read carbon emission. As lighting designers, now more than ever, we have the task to educate and find solutions for this big lighting challenge.
I am not sure what the right answer is, but likely it is somewhere in between.
A carbon neutral lighting installation?
China, 9th December 2009
The climate change conference in Copenhagen keeps heading the news and many related stories are featured here in China to illustrate the issue or to show how good a corporate citizen the country already is. I assume this happens in most major countries around the world at the moment. This morning I was attracted to a story about a new hotel in Shanghai that claims to be the first carbon neutral (!) hotel in China. The key word here is neutral.
Carbon neutral means that you buy carbon credits to offset your carbon emissions. While this hotel is obviously high on energy saving, using recycled materials, organic stuff etc, the key interest to me was that they have put in place a system that constantly measures the energy consumption which then converts into the related carbon emission. Now here comes the trick… to become so called carbon neutral they then buy carbon credits equal to the carbon emission they produce and hence become carbon neutral! In this case the carbon credits come in the shape of trees which they buy or plant somewhere in northern China. Hmmm …sounds like a great marketing ploy, but is this the way to go? At least plant the trees in Shanghai! It seems an easy way to clear your guilty conscience…
So maybe next time you present your lighting design to your client and you come to discussing the excessive electrical loading and energy consumption with your client you can tell him: “Don’t worry, just buy 20 trees in Northern China and you are fine!”
…food for thought…
Climate change, the lighting challenge
China, 8th December 2009
With the conference on global climate change getting on the way in Copenhagen, Denmark, the news is obviously abuzz with the subject. I believe near 35,000 delegates from close to 190 countries (really?!) will seek a resolution on climate change with most countries pledging to reduce their carbon emissions by at least 20% by 2020. Many rules and regulations are being put in place by government and regulating authorities to reduce the carbon footprints created by the way we work and live.
In our lighting world the phasing out of the incandescent lamp is one of them. Within our own industry we have further identified the increased use of day lighting, applying energy saving lamps where possible, minimizing light pollution and controlling the usage of light as key components.
But as a famous president once said; don’t ask what the country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country! We should not only ask or be told what to do, we should take initiative by asking ourselves what we, as lighting designers, can further contribute to help combat climate change. I think we have that responsibility. For instance could we apply a 10% design cut? Instead of 10 lighting points, use 9, space them a bit further apart or more strategically where they are really needed. It may reduce the lighting levels with 10% overall, but we all know we cannot visually see the difference between 100 or 90 lux. It may not always be possible but in non critical areas we may well be able to apply this suggestion. I am sure there are many other things we can do.
I would like to use this blog to encourage people to come up with ideas and share those with all of us.
Being a team player
China, 7th December 2009
I don’t know much about other consultants and how they view their lighting design job, but to me (in my work at least) the lighting designer very much needs to be a team player. On all levels, whether with his own staff and colleagues, with the project consultants team, with the contractor or with the client. It is virtually impossible to have a successful end result without working together and coordinating with all other “players”. If one player fails it affects the end result for all!
As always on Monday mornings, whenever I can, I will have my “team” meeting. We discuss ongoing projects, the week ahead or just simply bring up any issues that are of general importance. It gives all staff a platform to share their thoughts, ideas or grievances and binds us together in finding direction and move forward. We are all in this journey together. Inherently we all want to be successful.
Unfortunately life is not always beautiful :). Our design targets and wishes are not always the same as what the interior designer, architect or client had in mind. So we need to throw in a few ingredients to make it work, which I would say are…listening, understanding and willingness to compromise or adapt (of course within reason) to find a solution.
Though at times there is a need for an authoritative or executive decision, a good end result is nearly always the result of playing as a team…
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!
Extreme lighting design
China, 5th December 2009
As I walked the city streets in Shanghai this morning I was welcomed by an icy cold and chilly wind. At least it felt that way coming from of my nice and warm bed just earlier! It got me thinking of lighting design under extreme conditions. Like lighting design on the North Pole for instance (…the obvious link … 🙂 or lighting design for space ships (we got a little insight of that by one of the key note speakers during PLDC in Berlin), etc.
My personal involvement with “extreme” lighting design (if we can call it that) would have been lighting design involving explosion proof lighting fixtures for industrial sites and oil rigs and lighting for inside submarines. But that was a long time ago in my early days when I was still working at the Philips project lighting design center. All fluorescent based. There was no such thing as LED lighting then!
There must be some really challenging applications out there that require extreme lighting design. I would like to invite and encourage anyone with some extreme lighting design experience to share that with us!
Lighting design for a moving target
China, 4th December 2009
No, I am not talking about lighting F1 cars or lighting sports events, as technically the background for these applications is static. My topic today is about lighting a much sneakier application, where the changes literally “creep” up on you! Ever done the design for landscapes?
Today I had a design coordination meeting about the landscape lighting design for one of our projects. By far the trickiest part of the design is to anticipate the growth of the trees and plants. And I am not even talking about their location! Landscape designers have a knack in changing the final locations of trees once they are on site or even interchanging the type of trees because they feel it looks better the other way around. This is largely due to the size and maturity of the trees when selected from the nurseries (of course smaller trees are cheaper than a mature trees…). The conceptual landscape design generally looks lush and green, but when you arrive on site to aim your lights these lush trees appear to be little leafless trees hardly out-measuring your own height. Not exactly the big mature tree that was presented. Of course the tree will eventually grow to that density and height, but that is generally several years away. Meanwhile your light seems over proportioned for the purpose! Reversely when you select a smaller light, it may turn out to be under performing in the future. Experience will help to find a good solution but it remains a challenge time and again!
That is why I feel that lighting design for landscapes is like designing lighting for a moving target. It always changes! I have come back to a site where I wondered where the lights were that we had designed only to find them covered and totally over grown with low planters and creepers…… creepy!
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