One of the assignments I frequently give my students is to make a custom fixture based on a theme or on a design style. Here are a few of this semester’s best.
by Emily Roise
b;y San Hoi Lam
by Yan Cul
Category: Education
What Happened to IYL?
Elizabeth Donoff asks “International Year of What?” in her editorial in this month’s Architectural Lighting, and I have to agree with her. Early last year I noted that our professional organizations showed no plans to take advantage of the International Year of Light, and indeed nothing worth mentioning happened. The professional societies of the lighting community (IES, IALD, etc.) added the International Year of Light logo to their web sites, but that’s about all. They held no significant events, published no important documents, and made no efforts to raise the visibility of the profession with potential employers (architects and owners) or with the public at large. The IALD boasts that their regularly scheduled events were added to the IYL calendar, but say nothing as to what resulted, probably because the result was nothing. Lightfair 2015 was business as usual, I saw no recognition of IYL.
The entertainment industry did no better. United Scenic Artists Local 829, the union for theatrical designers, didn’t recognize the opportunities, nor did USITT, and at LDI (the entertainment industry equivalent of Lightfair) there was no sign that anyone knew about IYL.
As I’ve written before (see here and here, for example), and as many of us know, far too many projects are built with poor lighting because lighting design is seen as an added cost that can be avoided by having the architect, electrical engineer, or lighting sales person provide the “design” instead of a trained, professional lighting designer. Hoping this will change won’t change this. On an individual level, designers can educate their clients about the benefits of thoughtfully designed lighting, but it takes a larger, more expensive effort to reach those who don’t interact with lighting designers. Only manufacturers or professional organizations have the resources.
What could they have done in 2015, or what can they do this year? For starters, I’d like to see the IALD and/or the IES sponsor sessions on lighting design at the annual conventions of organizations such as AIA, ASID, and SCUP. Let’s get in front of the decision makers and teach them about what good lighting can mean to them. Topics such as energy efficiency, code compliance, and daylighting, as well as the more artistic and aesthetic sides of lighting design, are all appropriate and would, I think, be well attended. If we want lighting design to be seen as an integral part of any building project we have to work at it. Adding a logo to a web site isn’t enough.
Who Needs A Lighting Designer? Museums and Galleries!
A few weeks ago I gave a three-hour seminar on lighting museums and galleries to the graduate students in an art curating program at a university here in New York. Condensing everything I’d like to say into less than three hours was tough. The two big questions were what to include and what to leave out. I started with a quick overview of how to think about light and lighting before moving on to basic vocabulary and some common lighting techniques. Then, since LEDs are clearly the future, even when lighting art, I moved on to an overview of both color temperature and color rendering. I talked about reference materials such as the IES Lighting Handbook, intensity and brightness ratios, and other considerations before we moved into their gallery space to use their track light system for some demonstrations.
After the whole affair a faculty member, who sat in on most of the seminar, said he had hoped I would have spent much more time talking about how to use track lights and less time on unimportant issues like design, color temperature, and color rendering (!). I was respectful, but stunned. Focusing track lights is so complex that it requires extensive demonstrations? Understanding that with LEDs the color qualities of the light vary widely, and can only be properly selected when they are understood is unimportant information? Uhh…NO. Or, as my 20 month old niece says, “no no no no.”
Yes, five or ten years ago the default light source in museums was an incandescent or halogen lamp. The color temperature difference was minor and the color rendering of both was excellent. That’s not true today. Look at the cut sheet for any museum grade track light and you’ll see that you have a choice of several color temperatures and CRI values. If ANYONE needs to understand the qualities of light that must be selected when using LED fixtures, if anyone needs to understand the affect that color temperature and CRI have on how colors are perceived, it’s certainly people involved in displaying and lighting art. To me, that means the curators of exhibits and the lighting designers they hire.
As I’ve discussed earlier, changing the color temperature of the light changes the color appearance of objects, as shown below.
The phenomenon of color consistency means that the shift in color appearance isn’t as great as one might expect or as these photos suggest, but the shifts are real. If you’ve ever bought a black garment only to discover later that it was actually dark blue you’ve experienced this shift. A similar thing happens when we compare a high CRI light source and a low CRI light source. If your work involves color perception this is basic and critical information.
Curators can be forgiven for not knowing much about this, but if they know nothing how can they collaborate with their lighting designer to show the art as they intend? Administrators and curators of museums and galleries – educate yourselves, then hire a lighting designer!
Computers in the Classroom
Today’s New York Times tells us about the pernicious effect digital devices can have on our lives, saying that our “digital life keeps us hooked with an infinite entertainment stream as its default setting. Tech companies often set it up that way.” Referred to as growth hacking, it’s the continual testing and tweeking to better hook consumers and keep them coming back. It can be rewarding, although it can also become excessive or an obsession.
I see the result of this in my classroom almost every day with students who are online instead of in class. I haven’t yet reached the point of prohibiting phones, pads, and laptops from my class, but I’m getting close. Since every classroom now has Wi-Fi it’s not initially clear if a student is taking notes or has mentally checked out of class. Eventually I can tell, though. Excessive typing, looking at the screen but not typing at all, and smiling or laughing at the wrong time are all giveaways that the student is physically present but mentally absent. The problem is that they don’t know that they’re absent, they think they can multi-task and not miss anything. Last semester I added the following to my syllabus, to no avail.
Numerous studies have shown two things about note taking on computers. First, multitasking (such as taking notes while being on social media or answering email) inevitably results in lower quality of notes and reduced information retention, as described here, here and here. Second, the screens of students who are multitasking are irresistible distractions to other students who can see the screen, as described here.
I’m not a Luddite or anti-technology (case-in-point: this blog) but students and educators need to find a way to stay focused on the course material. It’s great that my students can get online during class. If I go to a site as a demonstration or example, they can follow along and bookmark the site for later. However, when students don’t understand or acknowledge the ways in which they’re sabotaging their own education, something has to change. For my part, I’d love to be able to have control over the Wi-Fi network in my classroom so that the only sites my students can visit are those on my preapproved list. Does such a system or software exist?
Who Needs A Lighting Designer?
No I’m not begging for work (although I am available for weddings and bar mitzvahs). At the beginning of every semester I ask my interior design students (especially at Parsons, where the class is an elective) why understanding lighting design is important to them. They tell me that lighting design is important for setting the mood or atmosphere, that lighting affects the appearance of materials and finishes, and that light is an important element in the overall design of any space. Good job!
But, as we move through the semester they often say that there’s so much to know and ask if interior designers, architects, and electrical engineers really know all of it. If not, why do only 10% of construction projects have a lighting designer? Why isn’t a lighting designer assumed to be part of a design team just like an electrical or mechanical engineer?
So I did a little research. According to the DesignIntelligence ranking of the top five interior design programs, only three undergraduate and one graduate program require a semester long course in lighting design. It turns out that I’m in a fairly unique situation in that my undergrad interior design students at Pratt are required to learn about lighting design.
What about architects? According to Architectural Record’s ranking of the top ten undergraduate and graduate architecture schools, only one grad program, and zero undergrad programs, require a course in lighting design! So, at least in the U.S., we shouldn’t expect interior designers or architects to create more than utilitarian lighting because they’re not educated in the practice of lighting design. Yes, many care quite capable of laying out a lighting plan that meets code requirements but we should remember that codes set minimum requirements for safety and energy efficiency. Codes have nothing to say about appropriateness for the application much less anything to do with aesthetics of the space or the interaction between light and materials.
So what do I tell my students? In the same way that there’s a difference between a decorator and an interior designer, there’s a difference between someone who can “do lighting” and a lighting designer. The differences are many, actually, and include academic education and training, continuing education, range and depth of experience, and a focus on the practice lighting design as a profession and a livelihood, not as an ancillary service. I tell them that it’s important for them to be able to speak the lighting designer’s language and to understand the interaction between light and materials because lighting can have such a strong effect on their work. I tell them that they may find themselves lighting some of their own projects and I hope my class prepares them for that. In the end I also tell them I’m sure they’ve learned that the best lighting designs are created by a professional lighting designer. If they want the best for their clients and their work, it’s worth the extra fee and worth talking to the client about what a lighting designer can do to support and enhance the project. Everyone needs a lighting designer, they just don’t know it.
Xicato Publishes IES TM-30-15 Results for its LED Modules
In a first (as far as I know) LED manufacturer Xicato has published TM-30 results for some of its modules alongside the CRI results for Ra and R9. Menko de Roos, CEO of Xicato, says “At Xicato we are very supportive of TM-30-15 overall and recognize the need for an improved metric system along these two dimensions.” You can read the full press release and find links to the results here.
I’m excited to see this greatly improved color rendering metric being used by a major manufacturer, and hope to see more manufacturers releasing TM-30 results soon. If you still haven’t looked into TM-30 there is an increasing number of resources available to you. TM-30 is available for purchase here. You can also view the recording of a webinar sponsored by the DOE and the IES and presented by two members of the IES Color Rendering Subcommittee, Michael Royer and Kevin Hauser.
“Celebrating Pratt Authors” Comments
Here are my comments from last night’s “Celebrating Pratt Authors” event.
Let me say a few words about my book and than I’ll move on. One of the things that drive me to write “Designing With Light” is missing content in other lighting design books. I come from the theatre-both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in design for the stage, and I worked in the theatre for over a decade before transitioning to architectural lighting. The other two common paths to becoming a lighting designer are from work as an architect or as an electrical engineer. Until now, as far as I can tell, lighting design books have been written by people with those two backgrounds. They do a fine job of discussing how to light architecture and how to calculate illuminance, but none of them actually address the issue of design. None of them discuss how to think about light as a design element in a space, or how to use light to create the desired atmosphere, environment, or ambiance. That’s the void I wanted to fill.
Some of you may know that the United Nations has designated 2015 as the International Year of Light. I want to build on this by saying a few words about the importance of light and lighting design. There’s an old saying, “out of sight, out of mind” but with lighting design the truth is actually closer to “within sight, out of mind.” Too often people ignore or are unaware of the potential that lighting design offers because as long as they can see they’re satisfied. Many people only notice light when it’s beautiful, as with a sunset, or when it’s an impairment, as when there’s not enough light to do what they want to do. Yet, while only a small percentage of people are aware of the lighting in their surroundings, 100% of people are affected by that lighting.
Sight is, without a doubt, our most important sense. Research shows that about 80% of our sensory input, learning, and activities are related to vision.
Our visual interaction with the world, and has two components. The first is target or object identification. “I see and apple,” is an example of object identification. However, our minds are much more sophisticated than that. We don’t stop at object identification. We’re not really aware of it, but we automatically go on to evaluate our visual target and its relationship to the surrounding visual field, to our previous experience, and to our expectations. This second component of vision is perception-the identification, organization and interpretation of sensory input. Perception is directly affected by the way light reveals the world to us. Can we see the texture of a material or not? Is the color as expected or is it distorted? Can we see the three-dimensionality or does the object appear flattened? Are details visible or are they hidden in shadow? Lighting design matters, in part, because it affects our perception.
The lighting requirements for object identification in terms of brightness, color, direction, etc. are minimal. However, the effect light has on our perception is huge. Perception causes us to form opinions about, and have intellectual and emotional reactions to, everything we see.
If I were to say that I want to take you to a romantic French restaurant, every one of you immediately has a mental image of that space. You may have a mental picture of the color palette of the room, or the ceiling height, or the spacing of the tables. That image varies from person to person, but there is a remarkable amount of commonality in our expectations. For example, I’ll bet that in your restaurant there’s a candle on the table, that the lighting is dim, and that the wood is dark and polished.
If we walked into a restaurant that we have been told is romantic and find it illuminated like a classroom, the perceptual dissonance between our expectations and our experience would cause us to immediately reject the notion that we were in a romantic restaurant. We would declare that the lighting design was a failure. We would, perhaps, extend the idea of failure to the interior design and, depending on the strength of our emotional response, maybe even to the food. Lighting matters, and understanding how expectations of the users affect their perception is one aspect of creating a successful lighting design.
This is something that I emphasize to my students all of the time – you must understand the intended look and feel of the space before you can light it. I also emphasize that they must understand the distribution of light in three dimensions, not just in a two-dimensional plan view.
To control the three dimensional distribution of light requires an understanding of the many types of lighting fixtures that are available, and of the light sources that they use. To control those light sources we have to know about dimming and control systems and technology. The body of knowledge required to create a lighting design is very large.
And, it’s getting larger every year. New lighting technologies such as LEDs and OLEDs have some unique properties. To use them well we have to expand our understanding of issues such as color and control technologies. Add to that the fact that energy conservation codes compel us to think much more carefully and creatively about what we do and how we do it because we’re given so little electrical power to realize our design goals.
Add all of this up and we find that lighting design is hard! It requires a solid grounding in light sources, fixtures, controls, and codes. All of that technical expertise has to be combined with a broad understanding of architecture, interior design, lighting techniques, and aesthetics to turn a mental vision or a rendering into a realized design.
I get very excited when I talk about light and lighting, but I’m frustrated, too. Only about 10% of design and construction projects include a lighting designer on their team. For the other 90% of projects, the lighting design is handled by the architect, the interior designer, or the electrical engineer. Yet academia is not providing the lighting education future designers need.
I’ll use Pratt as an example. Not only is lighting design not a required course in the any of the architecture programs, it isn’t even an elective. Students have to go to the Interior Design department if they want a semester of lighting, but that course is going to be eliminated within a few years as the Interior Design department reorganizes. Pratt is just a single example of what I think is an overall disregard or failure to understand the way light affects our experience of the built environment, and the need to teach future designers how to address the entire visual experience. This, of course, takes us right back to “within sight, out of mind.” But, good enough lighting isn’t good enough.
So, in this International Year of Light, I want all of you to think about and talk about the importance of good lighting in your homes, at work, an in the other places you spend your time. If you teach architecture or engineering or interior design, I urge you to give lighting design a place on the curriculum. If you’re a student I want you to demand that lighting design be made a part of your education. The International Year of Light has set the stage, but it’s up to us to act, to raise the importance we place on good lighting.
May 5 Appearance
On May 5th I’ll be speaking at PolyGlossoPhilia—Celebrating Pratt Authors, a cross-institute initiative that brings together authors from various departments and schools of Pratt. The event is from 5 to 9 pm. I’m scheduled for around 7:30. Up to date information is available on Pratt’s web site here.
OLEDs Are Ready For Their Closeup
Last week I attended a webinar on the history, future, and application of OLEDs presented by Dietmar Thomas of Philips. It was an interesting and informative hour that has just been posted online. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that Philips sees commercial lighting fixtures lamped almost exclusively with LEDs and OLEDs as soon as 2020! The webinar is worth the time. Take a look.
Starting A New Design
I’m between classes at Pratt, so I’ll have to be brief. It’s the time in the semester when my students start to feel overwhelmed. After talking about vision, light, psychology, design, lamps, color, and light fixtures they’re about to start working on designing projects for class. The most common question is something like, “How can I possibly organize all of this information and start to make meaningful design decisions? I need to pick a light fixture, then I need to pick a lamp for that fixture, then I need to lay out the fixtures to arrive at the lighting that I want, right?”
Wrong! A lighting design doesn’t come from the lighting fixture, so design decisions shouldn’t start there. In a push-me-pull-you kind of way the first questions are always about the end result. Rather than choose a fixture and follow the light down into the room, what we need to do is understand the lighting requirements and follow the light up to the lamp and luminaire. How do you want the space to look and feel? What lighting techniques can help achieve that look? Is there an overarching thematic element that needs to be included? How can we express the lighting goals in terms like intensity, color, and distribution? The answers to those questions should start to lead the designer to requirements for the fixture/lamp combination, and to the number of fixture types required to implement the design.
I explain that it’s not always a linear process, and that a certain amount of trial and error is part of any design. “Does this fixture give me the distribution and intensity I need?” isn’t always a yes/no question that can be answered by looking at a cut sheet. Sections may have to be studied, calculations run, different lamps and accessories considered, always with the end goal in mind.
Yes it’s hard. So hard, in fact, that some people spend several years studying light and design at the college level before getting their first job, only to discover that there’s so much more to learn! If you have a passion for light and design, though, trust me it’s worth it.