IAR 431 Architectural Lighting

This post is specifically for Tina and the teacher's aids

2008-03-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

I have with-held posting any bioluminscent, advertising, or magazine pictures part of sketch series 1 due to the possible copyright infringement of posting other people's property. I have on the otherhand printed them out and placed them in my physical sketchbook. Its pretty exciting and I hope you enjoy the things I've found these past few months. Now on to the light concept...

This is a photo I took of traffic in Washington D.C. The long exposure incongruence with the movement of my camera has caused the light to trail off in the picture. I've been doing this for a few years now but I have recently become familiar with the Graffiti Research Lab. They are an amazing group of individuals who do things I'm not even going to try to explain. All I can say right now is it involves writing graffiti on surfaces with lights. It seems like a wonderful place to start with a concept for the light project (Matt Jones is my partner).

SketchSeries 4

2008-03-17T19:17:00.001-07:00

Direct/Indirect fluorescent Pendant: Weatherspoon Art Museum: provides ambient lighting (and arguably some wall washing): it is located in the upstairs main hallway so therefore it has no other purpose other than to light the hallway in combination with natural light: as with all fluorescents, this one is no different with regards to color quality. Its not there: so far as illumination is concerned, the volume of the hallway is neither too bright or too dark.

Direct/Indirect incandescent pendant lamp: Stone Building hallway in front of the HES dean's office: ambient lighting for the hallway, spaced every 15-20 feet: since this is the only light source in the hallway, the illumination difference is severely noticeable between the ceiling, wall, and floor area. Most of the light shines up on the ceiling as you can see and it gets considerably darker as your eyes drift downward: as far as color is concerned, I don't think it is bright enough down where people are to get the quality you would normally get from incandescent lamps.

Metal Halide Lamp (HID) - Xenon: I was unable to find an actual halide in a real life situation. I know them from cars (the really annoying head lights that are clearly and irritatingly different from everyone else's head lights). I don't know why people use them. They should be banned. Joe Gohn also said they are not as good on energy efficiency, life span, and also said that the color changes over the life span of the lamp. That is a problem when you have to replace one lamp in a fixture, you pretty much have to replace all of them since you don't want any difference in the color of light coming out of the fixture. As Joe would say "Metal Halides are bad in every way imaginable."

SketchSeries 3

2008-03-17T18:51:00.001-07:00

Library: direct fluorescent lamps recessed into the ceiling with opaque plastic sheet covering: the colors don't seem to be particularly popping out at my eyes as is expected from fluorescents.

Grocery Store: direct incandescent light via pendant lamps: as we've seen in the lighting tables in Tina's powerpoint presentations, incandescents bring out color better than fluorescents as you can see here (there is a visual difference between this photo and the previous).

Retail: indirect/direct fluorescent pendant lamps (metal louvers): again, the color does not pop out at all. I would even suffice to say that the color quality is worse in this photo than it was in the the library.

Residential: incandescent task lighting: the color quality is best in this photo (that might have something to do with the surface I chose to take the photo on).

SketchSeries 2d

2008-03-17T18:42:00.001-07:00

Tobacco USA was a party of lights! I'm not quite sure if all of them were necessary and if there was any design with respect to the isles and items for sale. Track lighting/asymmetric lights and pendant lamps are used again here. The front of the store is entirely glass allowing a whole lot of natural light in, again the lighting design seems highly unnecessary especially since they close at 6pm.

Joe Gohn would not be pleased with this lighting design. I'm sure he would say that the first problem you have is "you can see the lamps. I don't like to see the lamps. Did I mention I don't like to see the lamps?" I found myself blinded occasionally glancing up towards the ceiling and physically being too close to a light. Perhaps more up lighting than down lighting (indirect vs direct)? It is just a guess but I believe that lighting is the sole reason why no one goes to this store. It is not customer friendly.

SketchSeries 2c

2008-03-17T18:36:00.001-07:00

Panera, delicious. All sorts of lighting situations here. We've got task lighting for the food prep and bakery areas, as well as information lighting for the menu and prices.

Here we have pendant lamps over the booths and some of the open floor tables. The light from these lamps illuminates just the small area it covers.

Accent lighting for paintings?

SketchSeries 2b

2008-03-17T18:23:00.001-07:00

This is the entrance to the Stone building facing the main reception area. There are display areas on both sides of the corridor with accent lighting and there is a main pendant lamp in the center of the hall. Natural light comes in through the windows on the main doors.

This is a view to the left of the main reception area. It is only lit with a few of the same pendant lamps we saw in the previous picture. Not very exciting, no natural light, no windows.

This a view to the right of the main reception area. It is a little more welcoming since the lighting is brighter although as you can see, the lights were probably meant for a higher ceiling. There is a huge perception difference between this view and the previous view. The lights need to be dimmed down a bit or the ceiling needs to be higher (like the other side of the hallway, huh).

SketchSeries2 a

2008-03-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

This is the main hallway on the second floor of the Weatherspoon Art Museum. There are three types of artificial light: wall sconces, recessed lighting up near the clerestory windows, and the pendant light that runs the length of the hallway. Natural light comes in from the windows at the end of the hallway as well as the clerestory windows up above the recessed lights (towards the top of the picture. The beams up near the clerestory windows are highlighted by the recessed lighting and create shadows downward from the natural light.

SketchSeriesOne

2008-03-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

The pictures follow the time period from left to right (left being January and right being February). During the day when the blinds are open the light and shadow from the window mullions start off on the left side of the room and rotate towards the right side of the room (the window wall faces the south). The light has not only gotten brighter and more intense as time has passed but the sun is coming earlier every morning and setting later in the afternoon.

The Atomic Demonstration Device, Natural Science Center, and the Light Box

2008-01-29T20:42:00.000-08:00

This is a picture (photoshopped obviously) I took at the natural science center while Rick was showing us the "atomic demonstation device." The warm colors represent the electrons moving around the cooler nucleus. The arc of color is just Rick's shirt.

Another picture from the demonstration with Stacy standing in front of the three colored lights to show her three colored shadows.

The light box was a great example for less being more than, well, more. With a single lamp inside the modified protuding form our group was able to produce 4 types of light. First, there is the wash of color on the floor of the box, second there is the dynamically artistic shadow form on the side wall, and the third lighting scenario provided is the back light increasing the visual contrast between the form and the back wall. I'm not a lighting expert but I would say the fourth is the all around ambient lighting provided within the entire confines of the box.

A nod to the future of bioluminescence

2008-01-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

So I had this crazy idea to combine two types of art: American Pin-up girls with a bit of traditional japanese samurai drawings. The addition of the bioluminescence was an after thought. It is quite possible we could be seeing the technology in everyday products, animals, and maybe even our own bodies sometime in the near future.

Light Revealing Space

2008-01-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

This is a photograph I took last semester in the lobby. Clearly there is an emphasis on the contrast of light and dark spaces, as well as the reflection occurring on the polished concrete.