Lighting Design

My most recent lighting column in Electrical Contractor Magazine describes the role of surface reflectances in the overall efficiency of lighting applications. Because surfaces and objects in typical spaces reflect light, they can play a part in lighting efficiency as extensions of the lighting system. By controlling room surface reflectances, light levels can be improved, [...]

The Title 24 Residential Lighting Design Guide is now available to help builders comply with California’s 2008 Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The Residential Lighting Design Guide provides a practical approach to lighting code compliance and design, including a broad array of example designs as well as technical and compliance information organized in a [...]

The Structure of Light, published by Yale Press, includes contributions from six historians, architects and lighting designers who explore Richard Kelly’s influence on modern architecture and his lighting designs. Check it out here.

The 10th edition brings together in one volume the current state of knowledge as it relates to lighting and lighting design.

In 2008, it was my honor to work with legendary lighting designer Howard Brandston on editing LEARNING TO SEE: A Matter of Light, which was subsequently published by IES. If the book could be boiled even further to a single statement, it might be Brandston’s trademark question, “What is it you wish to see?” Check [...]

The Yas Hotel, on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, was conceived as two towers connected by a bridge and united by a stunning glass and steel grid-shell element. The hotel’s sweeping grid-shell element, built by Austrian specialist Waagner-Biro, illuminates at night using more than 5,000 custom LED fixtures and a sophisticated control system, the result of an intensive design effort by Arup Lighting, who was engaged by Asymptote to create a lighting solution for both the iconic canopy and the hotel’s exterior.

New Buildings Institute (NBI) has announced the publication of the inaugural online version of the Advanced Lighting Guidelines (ALG). ALG is a premier resource for energy‐efficient lighting design, technologies and applications representing the latest and best thinking of experts in the field (I was pleased to contribute the controls chapter with Dorene Maniccea, and edit [...]

Room surface finishes can play a significant role in maximizing the efficiency of a lighting system because lighter finishes can produce relatively higher light levels and perceptions of brightness. In fact, in an existing space with a large area of dark surfaces can improve light levels and visual comfort almost immediately by simply repainting those [...]

A space’s lighting defines its personality and how people perceive it, which in turn affects how they feel about being there. Below are various lighting effects that can take the same space and transform it into different environments. Psychological impact Lighting effect Light distribution TENSE Intense direct light from above Non-uniform RELAXED Lower overhead lighting [...]