The Interior Design Reference & Specification Book

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THE INTERIOR DESIGN REFERENCE + SPECIFICATION BOOK

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Chapter 14: Artificial Light

Consider a strongly evocative interior space, one where the mood is immediately

striking, and chances are high that lighting played a central role in its design. In a

restaurant that is both cozy and contemporary, for instance, articial lighting will

inform the design features and the character of the space. Simple surfaces and

colors will have been selected to take best advantage of the light: Walls might be

a warm, buttery yellow, and mirrors and other reective surfaces used to throw the

focal glow of candles and soft light around the room.

Lighting design that creates a mood is based on an approach that is at odds with

lighting design that seeks evenly distributed and specic lighting levels. This kind

of “perfect” all-over task lighting may be appropriate for exible ofce space, but it

fails to produce an imaginative setting for most other human activities. By under-

standing the specic tasks intended for a space, however, the designer can readily

determine the appropriate lighting strategies that will integrate function and inspira-

tion into a design.

TYPES OF LIGHTING

Articial lighting is best examined according to the function it performs, typically described

as

space. Ideally, the ambient light source comes from different xtures that can be individually

controlled and dimmed depending on the time of day or amount of natural light available.

Accent lighting acts as a spotlight to illuminate a specic artwork, architectural detail, or piece

of furniture. Accent lights are typically low-voltage xtures that can be manually adjusted to

focus on a particular object. To avoid glare, the light source should be at a

the object.

Unlike ambient or accent lighting sources, chandeliers, wall scones, and lamps draw the eye

to themselves. These glowing objects serve as focal points in a room and, in fact, are often

referred to as

focal glow.

Task lighting provides light for a specic activity. In a typical ofce space, the light levels are

evenly distributed by a grid of uorescent xtures, but are usually supplemented with a task

light over each desktop. Different tasks require different lighting levels, for which there are

general recommendations. Lighting levels can be described in

how much light a lit candle would throw on a surface that is a foot away. The metric equivalent

is the lux.

RECOMMENDED LIGHT LEVELS

Task Area Foot-candles Lux

Kitchen

Reading or Writing

Classroom

Demonstration Lab

Computer Lab

Auditorium

Conference Room

Enclosed Ofce

Ofce Landscape

Corridor and Stairway

Arai Jackson Ellison Murakami, Veil Resaurant, Seattle; Studio Lumen, lighting design.

Photo by Richard Spry.

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