Lighting Design

The IALD is developing a new certification for lighting designers. By August, the credentialing task force will make a recommendation whether to proceed with a certification, which would then take an estimated 12-18 months to put into place. ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING recently published an excellent article on this topic, available here. Being Lighting Certified (LC), naturally [...]

I’m pleased to announce that my book LIGHTING REDESIGN FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS is now available as an eBook for Kindle on Amazon. LIGHTING REDESIGN FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS was written to educate owners, energy managers, electrical engineers, architects, lighting designers, consultants, electrical contractors, electrical distributors and other interested professionals about the relighting of existing buildings. The [...]

The International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) convened a credentialing task force to assess prospective domains of practice and qualifications for an international architectural lighting design certification. This assessment will be conducted via online survey, and is a key component of the task force’s efforts. The survey launched March 1, 2012 and is testing the [...]

I’m happy to be writing again for Architectural Lighting Magazine, for which I served as editor and publisher in the late 1990s. Editor Elizabeth Donoff is doing a terrific job providing the industry with great editorial, and brought me back to contribute a technology column in each issue. My contribution to the Jan/Feb issue deals [...]

The Advanced Lighting Guidelines Online Application Directory provides comprehensive designs of lighting and controls based on specific building types or space types. Check out this office design module, Open-Plan Office Application – Wallwash 1 (PDF), detailing the design approach, criteria and controls for effective wallwashing. Explore the Application Directory for more design modules.

Electrical Contractor recently published an article I wrote about a simple methodology for evaluating light sources based on a basic series of questions: • What is the distribution of the light? Distribution is measured in candelas (cd). • How long does the lamp last? Service life is measured in hours. • How much light does [...]

Acuity Brands, Inc. recently introduced the Night Time Demo by Holophane, which enables customers to increase their outdoor lighting knowledge by walking through a series of outdoor lighting environments and experiencing first-hand the quality of different outdoor lighting technologies. The Night Time Demo includes dozens of outdoor lighting solutions displayed in multiple environments–walkways, parking lots, [...]

Lighting designers have a responsibility to provide lighting systems that deliver visual comfort, which goes beyond simple visibility by addressing issues such as glare. This article, which I wrote for Electrical Contractor Magazine, describes the basics of glare, and how to address it.

As demand for lighting controls continues to grow, advanced solutions are becoming increasingly specified while also becoming increasingly sophisticated. This increasing sophistication translates to greater owner benefit but can also pose greater risk of design and installation mistakes. For the designer, the key is to clearly express the design intent, or the basis of design, [...]