Bad habits never die

In these times of looking for the best lighting efficiency, “changing the bulb” for a low energy one is the predominant response to the issue. Additionally the idea that a “small” low energy bulb affects only marginally our general electricity consumption remain well rooted in the common mind.

The light reflected by the surfaces and that emitted by light sources interact to produce the spectrum that is perceived by our eye. Since colors and surfaces significantly affect the lighting of a space, good lighting can not be designed without considering the characteristics of the environment itself and especially the colors present in it.
Obviously individual taste in terms of decoration, such as wall colors and furniture, must be taken in consideration. But only as much as they do not end up multiplying “small” low energy bulbs, as, in the end, all these low energy light bulbs, plus some halogen in the hall, plus a pair of table lamps and a few spots, are capable of burning one third of our electricity bill at some times of the year.

Getting back to walls color, the first thing to understand is that the white is always the brightest color, or in other terms, that white is without exception always able to amplify the brightness of a space under natural or artificial lighting. Any other color subtracts a portion of the light that the walls are able to reflect and redeem to the surrounding. The idea, for example, that a yellow hue may increase the power of light’s reflection is utterly wrong. In reality, the luminance of a colored wall is always lower than the one of a white wall.

Furniture also impacts the brightness of a space. Not because of its color, but rather because of the quantity of furniture. How often do we see clutters of cabinets, ornaments, pictures, maps, tables, chairs and more darkening entire living spaces? Before you start filling every inch of white wall or every inch of floor you better consider how much this will cost you in terms of energy. And not only for lighting, but also for vacuum cleaning...

The proper rule is to use the light as a guide for the perceptual process, leveraging its ability to “underline” the space. The light becomes the channel between the object and its shape, adjusting the contours and dramatizing the space limits.

Minimal is not poor, it is essential

“Less is more” has greatly influenced modern design since German Architect Mies van der Rohe original citation. It has gained worldwide acceptance, strongly influencing U.S. architecture, but it is in Europe that it has picked, perhaps as a reaction to the continent’s rich baroque architectural heritage. Designers and architects have quickly adopted the new idea as it was allowing breaking free from a long tradition of rich decorative arts and looking instead for expression in its purest form.

As I stated earlier, minimalism’s most prominent attributes are geometric shapes, light, natural materials, space. A successful minimalist design is a result of a good balance between these elements, but it comes at a higher cost that you may think.

Minimal is not poor, it is essential.

Essential is the planning in the concept phase, a necessary and expensive step. Because it is about concealing clutter, a minimalist design cannot stand approximation, and every detail must be perfect.
Essential are the few materials used to set the stage in the large surfaces, perfect angles, flat finishes and solid colors that this type of design favors. They all tend to emphasize any defect, be it in a cabinet, a table or a door frame.

The quality of materials and workmanship must be outstanding, which also means expensive.

Focussing on people: perception

I explained before that, when we step into a room, our eyes are guided by light, and the light tells us the story of the room. A good lighting makes seeing easy and pleasant. It is a treat for the eyes.

Remember how in the early days of artificial lighting a room was usually equipped with one lighting fixture hanging in the middle of the ceiling. We all know today that this is barely the best way to light a room. The room appears smaller, as all light is concentrated in the middle, and the wall surfaces receive little or none of it. Furthermore, as light naturally attracts people, all activities also become concentrated at the center of the room. It is definitively better to spread the light over several areas of the room, each of them determined by its particular function.

But our perception remains highly subjective. When asking people's preferences about lighting, the opinions are often divided almost equally between a gentle, soft, friendly, almost shadow-free light and a harsh, fascinating, but also aggressive and glaring light with sharp shadows.

The first lighting is similar to a cloudy day. The second lighting reminds of a sunny day. The later seems slightly more popular, maybe because the first impression when entering the room is stronger and more interesting.

Focussing on people: working

Health and comfort are the most important prerequisites to our motivation, our productivity and to rich emotional experiences. Whether in the working world, in healthcare services, in hotels and restaurants or in boutiques, lighting has to be interpreted in a way that supports and promotes well-being and health.

Light has a great effect on our physical and mental state. In our quest to balance between movement and rest, between tension and relaxation, we need light that is modeled on the natural rhythm of daylight. We need to light with expectations.

The demands we make on our surroundings are continually increasing. This is particularly true of the quality of light, and of the design and aesthetics of the lighting fixture. Beyond the individual factors, it is important to consider the complete context: the characteristics of the rooms, workplaces and equipment, as well as the type of activities and the type of organization, so that the lighting design is tailor-made to suit the user and the specific environment.

Nowadays, an appropriate light management system has become indispensable and plays a particularly important role. The lighting control must be simple to operate, so that every user can regulate the light to suit the activity of the moment and in accordance with its own preferences. Pre programmed light scenarios and automatic daylight dependant illumination management also become standard in up-to-date illumination control.

In a working environment, an employer will express consideration for its employees and clients by providing high quality lighting solutions. Individual lighting control favors the appropriation by the employees and reinforces the feeling of belonging to an identity, and provides a positive corporate image for the outside. This in turn creates a positive impact on motivation.

Potential of LED control systems

Since the LED is a dimmable light source, the modular control of LEDs of different color allows a very precise shifting, fading and transitions of light, which in turn transmits a dynamic effect to the architecture set to ultimately communicate the idea of change and adaptability. The underlying purpose is to render architecture more efficient and sustainable, by creating a more comfortable, responsive and consistent relationship between the users and the architectural space.

Color mixing and color effects are seen as a powerful tool, positively provocative to our perception. Changing color can suggest moods and bring a healthy variability to the task of space-making. But this dimension of technology does not define a space by itself, as some extreme proponents of “interactive architecture” would have you believe. On the contrary, depending on how it is applied, it may even condemn spaces to becoming void of any kind of life. And this can happen fast.

Light always has a story to tell

the eye instinctively turns towards the light in order to see.

Lighting has a great significance to our well-being, health and safety. This is why it is such an important element in building and interior decoration.

Light is electromagnetic radiation invisible to the eye. Light only becomes visible when it meets a surface. Colors are formed by waves of different lengths, and when combined together produce white light. When white light is refracted through a prism, the whole color spectrum becomes visible, as in a rainbow. The human eye is only sensitive to the range of the “visible light” wavelengths, which is between 380 nm and 780 nm. The extreme ends of the scale being ultraviolet (UV) and infra-red (IR) light.

The human eye is perfectly able to adjust to the great variations of luminosity found in nature, from moon light (1 lux) to bright sunshine (100,000 lux). In artificial lighting conditions, we usually have to compensate for minor variations, from general lighting (1-2,000 lux) to working light (200-2,000 lux).

Our vision is based on light. The eye instinctively turns towards the light in order to see. Some 80% of all information is received through the eye.

When we step into a room, our eyes circle it guided by light, and the light tells us the story of the room: its shapes, colors, architecture, decoration, ornaments etc. A good lighting makes seeing easy and pleasant. It is a treat for the eyes.

A simple life

Modern interior design and minimal living need not be cold and stern looking, nor should its serenity be purely monastic. It need not be so cutting edge either, that it becomes unusable or ugly. The essence is to find the level of simplicity that suits anyone of us. The only requirement is honesty to the materials and a respect of space.

Rooted in part in Japanese culture, minimalism, or one of its many incarnations, is a movement that started, originally in Scandinavia and Japan, as a reaction to the emergence of commercialized styles of architecture that was popping up everywhere with the idea of “less is more”. Minimalist design is concerned with minimizing the use of ornaments and “grandiose” designs in the structures. A few of minimalism’s attributes are geometric shapes, light, natural materials, space. A successful minimalist design is a result of a good balance of these elements. Minimal is not poor, it is essential. Essential in this case means that few materials set the stage for perhaps one or two important focus pieces. The quality of materials and workmanship must be outstanding.

Minimalist architecture is sometimes described as being cold, but advocates of this style find it more welcoming, relaxing and free from clutter. Depending on how it is planned, minimalist architecture can be elegant and at the same time, inviting. It makes use of the space as a feature and uses basic shapes and lines that are neat and can play with light resulting in an elegant outcome. There are many examples where the flow of space and light create the decoration without the confusion of ornamentation. Simple spaces gives rise to a more relaxed and tranquil life. In essence, living with less and finding more.

Lighting affects us more than anything in our home

Lighting is an art as much as a science. Lighting affects us more than any other detail in our home. Light conditions our emotional and physical comfort.

We need good lighting for our daily activities, to see clearly, to prevent fatigue, and to support our mood. We can light a room for a particular occasion or activity; we can change the usage of a space more quickly with light than with any other decoration detail. Lighting variations affect our daily rhythms giving us either a comfortable or a miserable mood.

Besides allowing us to see, lighting sets the emotional atmosphere. Understanding the effects of lighting is a key parameter when selecting light sources to create a particular emotional setting.

• Bright light stimulates us, while low levels of illumination quiet our senses.
• Too much bright light hurts our eyes and make us feel jittery.
• Insufficient lighting causes eye fatigue and headaches.
• Insufficient lighting is linked to emotional stress and to physical ailments.
• Low light level or harsh contrasts produce eyestrain.
• Directly visible light source cause irritation and disturb tranquility.
• Artificial light does not replace the calming effects of natural daylight.
• Absence of natural daylight triggers depression and poor immune defenses.

Lighting brings benefits in many ways, but notice how an excess or a lack of artificial light brings about the same harmful side-effects. Choosing between a glow and a bright light involves understanding the effects of light on our mood. Uniform lighting is adequate for working, but is rather boring; people feel more comfortable with lighting from many sources. Combinations of contrasting brightness and darkness cause dramatic and lively changes in an ambiance as long as they remain balanced. Use of artificial light sources add variety and vivacity to our spaces and our lives only by respecting our emotional and physical comfort.

Are we all designers?

We live in times where the surge for expressing one’s individuality and personality is stronger than ever before.  Every moment, we consciously or unconsciously try to recreate our own identity to escape the void of anonymity. This expression can take many faces, from the style of clothes we choose to wear, to the way we modify the environment we live in, including our own homes. But in the end, it always revolves around asking ourselves what suits us, how we see ourselves and what combination of different objects can provide points of reference for us.

The age of the homogenous style is long gone. Living requires a collage of different styles and special features. Any personal style evolves from an epicenter around which gravitate the most varied influences and inspirations. There’s not just one trend anymore when individuality imposes over six billions of possible style mix…

Design takes its inspiration from a context, but that context has become everyday more widespread. We live in a sort of "constantly self re-designing" society, which calls for the intersection and combination of disciplines, as well as ever more precise concepts of the emotional traits of objects. The answers offered by designers must therefore be as multiform as our requirements are individual.
Lights form an integral part of the architecture of the places where we live. This is true of public and private buildings, as well as of spaces used for business or entertainment, internally and externally. Not only does lighting create spaces that are safe and properly illuminated, but it also provides mood and ambiance.
For lighting design it will mean spreading itself and look for new strategies, aesthetic concepts and design approaches, capable of providing that required flexibility and adapting to our always changing moods.

It is clear that lighting design is developing in very different directions, none of them close to becoming a trend, but rather aimed at satisfying our personal preferences and individual ambiance’s ideas. Furthermore, we are already seeing how conventional lighting categories and classifications are increasingly questioned in the face of the solid state lighting revolution. These new light sources, in their current LED form or in that of OLED later, open up a large variety of approaches to lighting, and will induce new objectives, ideas and processes to cope with our quest for an appropriately styled individuality.

More than ever before, artificial lighting requires a novel interpretation because, as light itself, it makes profound statements about the stance, origin and value on our own individual aesthetic and emotional system.