{"id":5952,"date":"2021-06-08T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/?p=5952"},"modified":"2021-06-09T11:06:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T15:06:53","slug":"applying-the-art-to-architectural-outdoor-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/news\/applying-the-art-to-architectural-outdoor-lighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying the art to architectural outdoor lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For an architect, a building is a work of art. But while that art looks great during the day, how do you enhance it to make it look great at night, so it\u2019s not just a dark canvas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellen Godson LC, IES, a lighting design consultant with Lightspec Canada and member of The Illuminating Engineering Society, sees more and more building owners wanting to achieve just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven with bridges, we see examples. The Jacques Cartier Bridge<\/a>, in Montreal where light is not only used to highlight the columns and the structure, but also used to produce a nightly light show. It looks like fireworks and makes the water look like it\u2019s dancing to music. All this is integrated into the lighting control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s a modern architectural design or historic iconic structure, these buildings are part of the culture of its city or town. Lighting allows us to enhance these cultural elements. By using lighting techniques such as highlighting, grazing and\/or washing, we\u2019re ensuring that the building continues to be an art piece, even at night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are lighting designers like Godson creating this sense of architainment to inspire a sense of community and culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreating a light show and putting it to colour is becoming more of a wow factor on the exterior of buildings,\u201d says Godson. \u201cHighlighting of a structure through coloured lighting is a big focus.\u201d If you are able to bring the community together to watch this show or bring in tourism to see this show, it now becomes a centre hub for the community, with the ability to inspire others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Linear lighting, like Tokistar Reveler<\/a> and Neon Flex<\/a> from Magic Lite, is an ideal solution to achieve this effect. \u201cLinear lighting is really taking hold in outdoor lighting applications,\u201d says Godson. \u201cWe’re seeing it in soffits, grazing the walls, accenting niches, highlighting specific areas and\/or delineating the geometry of the building against the skyline. It\u2019s able to become part of the structure, and it creates that wow factor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godson says that one of the biggest misconceptions about outdoor lighting is that throwing more light on the subject is better. \u201cWe don’t need that huge glow around everything. We just want to create the magic. Suppose you wish to focus on an architectural feature of a building. You won’t notice it, if everything’s illuminated at the same level. If you want to focus on something, you have to highlight it. You need contrast\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs with any work of art, you\u2019re playing with shadow and light contrasting each other to create the drama,\u201d says Godson. \u201cThat\u2019s how you create an art piece. If I have black writing on a blackboard, you’re not going to see it. But if I have white chalk on a blackboard, I have created contrast and you\u2019ll see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human beings are attracted to light and naturally look towards it. She recommends at least a three-to-one ratio between the highlighted component and the background in outdoor lighting scenarios. \u201cIf I have 10 lux on the background, I need 30 lux on my focal point,\u201d she explains. The Disk<\/a> or Mini Disk<\/a> series from Magic Lite can be ideal solutions for achieving this ratio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When creating artful architectural lighting, controls are another part of the consideration. You need to be able to create these effects using the luminaires by controlling the sources. Environmental issues are also playing a large part in our lighting design. Bylaws in many regions require dark sky approval luminaires. These luminaires are designed to minimize glare and reduce skyglow and light trespass. By preventing skyglow, the luminaire does not allow light spillage above 90 degrees going up into the sky. Curfews are also a consideration for many areas and their bylaws. There may be a difference on your illumination levels up to 11:00pm and then after 11:00pm. \u201cYou’ve got to have the controls in place to dim your lights down or turn them off,\u201d says Godson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, this depends on the traffic coming to the building. Is it 24\/7, like a hospital or casino? Then, of course, you can\u2019t turn off all the exterior lighting. But if you’re in a park area, well, no one really needs to be walking around a park at 3:00 am, so the lights should be off or only triggered to turn on when someone enters the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe key is that we can\u2019t just light the exterior of buildings and structures, turn them on, and never think about it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about how Magic Lite\u2019s lighting solutions can help illuminate your next project, please feel free to contact your local Sales Agent<\/a> or a member of our Customer Care team<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can buildings inspire a sense of community and culture even by night? Ellen Godson, LC, IES, explains how the latest lighting trends are creating a sense of architainment 24\/7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-talk","category-design-inspiration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magiclite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}