The art of Architectural Lighting

This past Wednesday I attended a seminar by Harald Hofmann of the Leox Design Partnership based in Germany. They do lighting design for architectural projects. They don't design the lights themselves, but rather uses them to create an environment or an effect that brings out another dimension in the architecture. The seminar provided a insightful look into the impact of light design and what the future holds for this medium.

 

Modern architectural lighting design started with Richard Kelly in the 1950s. The three pillars of light design as defined by him is; to support Function (for the comfort of the program of the space), to Reveal interior or Exterior elements (that maybe otherwise not highlighted by natural light), and to be Integrated with architecture (as a part of and not an addition to). Hofmann goes on to use two very familiar projects as an example. I.M.Pei's Louvre addition, and Allianz Arena by Herzog and de Meuron. In both these projects, artificial lighting is essential to the iconic presence these projects have in our minds.

 

Artificial light serves not only to provide light in spaces that need it, but should also define the space it is in. Lighting allows a stronger showing of architectural ideas perhaps not strongly shown by physical elements. Dynamic lighting can create drastic mood changes in certain spaces. Ongoing studies are expanding our knowledge on what different color light do to affect the behavior of the people that inhabit them. Better understanding will increase the use of dynamic lighting in spaces to reach effects such as increasing productivity in offices, subdue children in schools, or spice up a bar. However, Hofmann warns that architects should be reluctant to use colored dynamic light and try to restrict them to the perimeter of the architecture.

 

Designed lighting does incredible things to architecture at night. As glass is now a universal medium in almost all buildings, a small amount of light at night can do amazing things. Glass is often though of as an open and transparent material. However, during the day this is often not the case. Strong light from the exterior makes it act as a mirror and therefore react as a closed medium. At night however, light from the interior allows glass to be truly transparent. In a project such as the China Diamond Exchange Center in Shanghai by GP and the well know Seattle Public Library by OMA, a small amount of light at night makes all the difference in how the building is perceived and brings out architectural ideas otherwise invisible during the day. The extreme end of this is the Media Facade, seen on many of the buildings in Shanghai's Pudong skyline. Media Facades completely changes the architecture and is perceived by many Sci-fi movies as the future of our cities. Building by day completely changed to become giant screens by night.

 

Hofmann goes on to select LEDs as the future of architectural lighting. LED "does what traditional lighting could not."  Dynamic color lighting, energy efficiency, and ease of programming all contribute to LED's future in architecture. As artificial lighting design becomes increasingly important, it seems like a good idea to invest some time to figure out what it can do and what its limits are.