Philips Lighting India - City Beautification


City Beautification

		Dynamic coloured light produces a theatrical effect. The Sphinx Giza, Egypt.

Decorative Floodlighting The public lighting of a city will incorporate one or more of 3 mutually dependent components: purely functional lighting, aesthetic lighting, and lighting designed to create a chosen atmosphere. Until now, many cities have provided only the functional lighting needed to promote the safety and security of motorists and pedestrians, and do very little to actively attract visitors after dark. Fortunately, however, there is a growing interest in the use of outdoor lighting to help improve the attractiveness of the city environment. Entering a nicely lighted square or looking at a floodlighted building or sculpture, we readily appreciate the importance of ambience and the ability of lighting to reveal character and form. The technique of floodlighting is not based on the principles of lighting engineering; feeling and insight with regard to the aesthetic values are just as important. During the hours of daylight a subject is lit by direct sunlight, by diffused light radiated from the sky, or by both. The result is that virtually all its features are emphasized by a continuously changing interplay of light and shadow. It is not possible, or indeed even desirable, to achieve the same effect using artificial lighting. It is more a question of deciding which features are the most attractive and how these can be enhanced by the lighting. Once the lighting requirements have been decided, a practical assessment can be made of where to locate the luminaires, lamp types and wattages that will be required to achieve the design objective. Directions of view A daylight site survey will enable to determine the main viewing positions and directions of view for the subject in question. It is for these viewing directions that the lighting effects should be optimised and offending brightness avoided. The relative importance of each viewing direction should also be noted, as this will allow varying degrees of emphasis to be created in the lighting design. Positioning the floodlights In the past, floodlights were often positioned some distance away from the subject being lighted. Some of the alternative methods of mounting are: on a neighbouring roof, on brackets attached to the facade, on the open ground, and on the ground behind low walls, flowerbeds or bushes. The current trend, however, is to place the floodlights a lot closer. The reasons are: * The illumination will be less flat and more pronounced * There will be less glare for people walking around the subject * It will not be necessary to mount the floodlights on surrounding buildings or structures not belonging to the property * It will create less spill light. The greater the 'throw' of a floodlight (viz. floodlight to subject distance), the greater the amount of light spilled into the atmosphere (typically 30% for large throws). The close-up floodlighting of the facade will requires a careful study of the structures on the facade and their rhythm. The possible locations for fixing the floodlights need to be carefully selected, and the shape, colour and dimension of the floodlights themselves must not detract too much from the daytime appearance of the building. Surroundings and background If the surroundings and background of the subject are dark, a relatively small amount of light will be adequate to make it stand out. On the other hand, if there are buildings in the close vicinity, their lighted windows will give a strong impression of brightness, and more light will be needed on the subject itself for contrast. The same is true if the subject is seen against a bright background. In both cases, consideration should be given to the creation of a colour contrast instead of or in addition to, a brightness contrast. Luminous composition There is no correct luminous composition for a given subject. The choice of what elements should be lighted, the colours and brightness employed are what constitute the freedom of expression of the lighting designer. The dynamic use of light by changing colour or brightness or both, also comes into it. The use of colour The world around us is never constant as far as colour is concerned. The time of day, the weather, the season of the year, all combine to determine how we will perceive a particular scene at a given moment in time. Coloured lighting is therefore sometimes employed to invoke or recall a particular daytime atmosphere and so 'set the scene' in a night-time floodlighting project. Temperature, too, is strongly associated with colour: warm light suggests heat while blue light is more likely to have a cooling impression.