Architectural lighting applications can be used in a variety of different ways. Whether enhancing visibility and ensuring a building is well-lit and safe for users or attracting more visitors by creating alternative uses for a venue, effective lighting can achieve far more than an improved appearance. Architectural lighting design involves identifying the aim of the application, then selecting the correct combination of equipment and techniques to satisfy the desired scheme.
Getting your lighting designed and assembled professionally
Don’t let lighting design be an afterthought in your self build or renovation. While it can be relatively easier to complement an existing lighting scheme with freestanding lamps, your hardwired lighting system does the majority of the heavy lifting in how you use a space. Get it right, and when the daylight starts to fade you’ll have a home that’s comfortable. All of this is to be functional to use. Get it wrong and the whole atmosphere of the space will be off.
When we talk about lighting design, we don’t just mean choosing the right fixtures and fittings, but ensuring there is enough lighting of various types, highlighting and interacting with your space in the right way. Lighting may even affect your health, so the stakes are high in creating an excellent lighting scheme for your home.
The building regulations that come into account
Installing low-energy light sources in a new build home is now a must and Building Regulations state that 75 per cent of the lights in a new home must be ‘energy efficient’. This means that light fittings must produce a total of at least 400 lumens, have a minimum efficacy of 45 lumens per watt and be over 5 circuit watts. Fittings under 5 watts are excluded from the overall count, so too is any exterior lighting. Fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), LEDs or discharge lamps would conform to this. This is all whilst fitting low-energy bulbs with bayonet or screw-cap bases do not.
Why to hire a designer and their costs
A lighting design scheme can be created by an interior designer or a lighting design professional. If you’re renovating a relatively standard house, it’s likely that you’ll be able to create an effective lighting scheme without the help of a design professional, especially in a moderately sized room. However, when creating a large new extension, professional help may be worthwhile to perfect your lighting scheme, while in a self build, it’s essential.
As a percentage of your overall budget, may be more affordable than you’d imagine. A lighting designer may cost between £500 and £5,000 depending on the size of your project.
Light Colour in Lighting Design
Studies suggest that emotions are experienced more intensely under bright, harsh lighting. This can have a negative impact on our moods. Artificial lighting temperatures range from warm ‘soft whites’ (2700-3000K) to ‘bright or cool whites’ (3500-4100K) and finally ‘daylight’ (5000-6500K). Each temperature range creates a different effect and can impact our mood.
Soft whites create a warm, cosy feeling. These work well in bedrooms and living rooms as they are calming and can help to us to relax, which is key to our mental wellbeing. Bright and cool whites work best in bathrooms and kitchens. They create a more energetic feeling and help to give better contrast between colours.
Using electric circuits in the realms of lighting design
While it is always a good idea to speak to a qualified electrician about installing your light fittings, it does help when coming up with a plan to have at least a basic understanding of how lighting circuits work. Lighting circuits are radial. This simply means that they are linear power circuits. This is where the cable leaves the consumer unit. It is also where it runs to each outlet (or fitting) on the line before terminating at the last.
Most houses will have at least two separate circuits. One will be for upstairs and one will be for the downstairs. It is a good idea to have more than this in reality. At the very least you need to ask your electrician to install your lights so that you can operate each type or ‘level’ of lighting separately.
Lighting in the domestic market
One cannot ignore something as importance as the lighting in the house. Apart from holding an aesthetic quality, efficiently designing it becomes a crucial part of the ergonomic designing. The fathomless ability it holds in instilling and improving the right moods and energy into a design space cannot go unconsidered in a design process. Even a certain part of the budget should be retained for such a chief design element.
One can be really cautious about designing each elemental piece in the room. The wrong lighting can make it all go in vain so quality lighting is suggestive. It can have physiological and psychological effects on the mind as well. Emotions- both positive and negative- are felt more intensely under bright lights.
Improving the visual look and appeal of the lighting through a clever design
One of the very best reasons to use LED architectural lighting is simply for the aesthetic appeal that they provide. The light cast by LEDs is unadulterated and brilliant. It is also nearer to copying genuine daylight than some other accessible lighting. LED lighting has superior CRI, which means the colours in your space render more true to their actual colour. Additionally, while many fixtures are built around the bulbs ability to light a space, fixtures built around LED’s can take on smaller, more dynamic sizes, including everything from tape to sharp, ultra-thin geometric designs.
LED bulbs are available in a variety of colours and temperatures to suit any interior design element or architectural demand. Regardless of whether you are searching for accent lights, floodlights, recessed or mounted slim bulbs to supplant a fluorescent, there are LED lights accessible that will fit directly into most standard lighting equipment.
Overall – what you need to know
Overall, architectural lighting design is an art that entails the masterly, correct, as well as magnificent consolidation of masses in form of light. The human eye is attracted by light. Simple design additions can enhance the effectiveness of any building, turning it into a happier, healthier and productive environment. When it comes to lighting and the way it works, it can really make a space all the more effective and all the more welcoming. This is why it will continue to prove to be a wise investment.
