Intro to Lighting Design

Quality of light affects everything you do. Two aspects to lighting design go hand in hand; the qualitative (or aesthetic) aspect and the quantitative (or engineering) aspect.

The qualitative part pertains to ensuring that a space has a pleasing ambience. It is the artistic interspersing of shadows and light, darkness and illumination, figure and form.

The quantitative part revolves around providing adequate light for a task. The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) of North America publishes guidelines of light levels for many tasks and activities based on the nature of the task, the size of objects handled, detail required, even the average age of the humans inhabiting that space.

The term for the rate of energy consumption is power and it’s measured in watts. A 200-watt lamp consumes energy at twice the rate of a 100-watt lamp. The electric utility charges the consumer for the total amount of energy consumed. This is measured in kilowatt-hours or kwh. A 200-watt lamp burning for five hours consumes 1,000 watt-hours of energy, which is the kilowatt-hour. Note that burning a 1,000-watt lamp for one hour costs the same as burning a 100-watt lamp for 10 hours.

Electricity costs about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. It is as high as 20 cents per kwh in some places and as low as five cents in others.

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David P Hakimi

David Hakimi is a lighting specialist and one of the co-founders of Alcon Lighting. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), David works on the front lines of the energy-efficient lighting revolution, enabling architects, designers, and lighting engineers to transition from outmoded halogen and fluorescent lighting to what David calls “the ideal replacement for all lighting applications,” —LEDs. David takes particular pride in Alcon’s design, energy, and green building knowledge, tracing his and Alcon’s commitment to quality, innovation, accountability and value back to the lessons learned from his father, a Southern California lighting salesman and consultant for more than two decades. Passionate about reducing climate change and protecting the environment, David has been particularly valuable in ensuring that his clients and customers comply with rapidly-evolving green building codes. You can connect with David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-p-hakimi/.

What Is Architectural Lighting?

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The term Architectural Lighting encompasses three main factors. The first is the building’s aesthetic, which is crucial for any commercial, especially retail, environment. The second consideration is ergonomic or functional — any aspect which improves one’s ability to live, work, function, relax or play — to make the space easier to use. The third aspect involves the efficiency of energy, ensuring that light is properly, which is to say economically or optimally, used and distributed.

Lighting Lessons from Lighting Designer, Writer, Lecturer Gerd Pfarré

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In 2016, Architectural Lighting interviewed lighting designer and founder of Pfarré Lighting Design, Gerd Pfarré, shedding light on the legendary designer’s process, what’s most important when lighting a space and what the future holds for lighting. While Pfarré’s is a career is a storied one, he did not start out in the industry.

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Whether you’re upgrading the lighting in your current office, or designing the office space of a new development project, it’s important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of LED Lighting. Here are 4 important points of analysis when considering LED Lighting to Fluorescent.

B.V. Doshi— The Humble Architect and The 2018 Pritzker Prize Laureate

April 10, 2018 by Alcon Lighting

Early in his architectural journey almost 70 years ago, now-renowned architect, educator, and urban planner Balkrishna Doshi made a quiet, powerful promise to himself in his diary, “It seems that I should take an oath and remember it for my life-time: to provide the lowest class with the proper dwelling.” And for the next six decades he lived up to his oath.