Lighting Integration
One of the roles of the façade
engineer is to ensure that the
façade works both thermally
and visually.
– Ant Wilson
design
behalf of the Society of Façade Engineering. “One of
the roles of the façade engineer is to ensure that the
façade works both thermally and visually and, most
importantly, provides people with a view so they can
engage with the outside.”
Maintaining ‘a room with a view’, however, is at
odds with some designs that make use of opal glazing
combined with integral lighting to create a glowing
effect across the façade. Furthermore, this approach
restricts the use of natural daylight within the building.
Light fantastic: Palace
I
n an ideal world we would only see the effects of “Any design that reduces the potential for daylighting
lighting and be totally unaware of the luminaires
Xchange shopping centre,
is a definite no-no,” Meyrick warns.
Enfield, London, above, and
and light sources that create them. That’s certainly AECOM’s Martin Valentine adds: “Daylight is the
Cabot Circus, Bristol, below
what many lighting designers feel, and is one of the overriding factor because of the quality of the light
reasons we are seeing more emphasis on integrating and its importance to health and wellbeing, as well
lighting more closely with a building’s façade or as the energy considerations. Consequently, we need
interior fabric. It is also widely believed that LED (light to use the façade and the interior fabric to maximise
emitting diode) and OLED (organic LED) light sources daylight penetration, with mechanisms such as light
will facilitate this trend. boxes, reflective strips at high level, light pipes, super-
So far, the majority of integration has been in exterior reflective surfaces and light shelves.”
lighting of façades, moving away from simply ‘throwing With regard to artificial lighting there are also key
light’ at the building to concealing more compact concerns that, currently at least, constrain the potential
light sources within the façade itself, picking out for increasing the integration between lighting and the
architectural features. And while older buildings offer building fabric.
plenty of ‘hiding places’, the same isn’t necessarily true “With façade lighting it’s all about the visual effect,
of newer structures. “Modern minimalist architecture but with interior lighting the emphasis is on how the
with high levels of glazing certainly makes it harder to lighting helps the space function efficiently for the
conceal the fittings,” observes Tim Downey of Pinniger people in it,” Downey explains.
& Partners. “So, once we’ve got the functionality right, and the
In this respect, the emergence of compact LED right light levels on the surfaces, then we can start to
fittings is proving a boon in terms of concealment. look at whether we need to add more. So any integration
However, the cost is still relatively high because of of lighting into the fabric may be the icing on the cake,”
the need for precise engineering and requirement for he suggests.
fittings with IP67 ingress protection. Again the relatively compact nature of LED light
Another potential barrier is the need for co- sources offers the lighting designer more potential
ordination between all interested parties early on in for concealment within the fabric, and we are even
the design phase, taking account of the main role of the beginning to see strips of LEDs built into desks and
façade as well as its potential to create ‘night art’. partitions to provide extra localised or task lighting.
“The design of the façade is generally dictated by In fact, there is growing opinion that the way forward
thermal-based decisions long before the lighting is is away from the prescriptive guidelines that dictate
considered – so the lighting becomes an add-on,” says many lighting designs, to a situation where ambient
Dominic Meyrick, of Hoare Lea Lighting. light levels are reduced and better use is made of local
“It’s also important to be clear where the responsibilities task lighting. This move is fuelled to some extent
lie. Architects often focus on the appearance of the by increasingly mobile work patterns within the
building during the day, but they should also be workspace, as well as a reduction in paper-based tasks
responsible for its appearance at night,” he suggests. and more use of ‘self-lit’ screens of various sorts.
Another ‘player’ in this respect is the façade engineer, If ambient lighting levels were reduced in this way it
a role that has taken on greater influence with the would open the door further for the newer technologies,
introduction of energy performance targets: “The façade such as LEDs, that are currently constrained by their
will modify the internal climate but it can also destroy relatively low light outputs. However, visual comfort
the lighting,” notes AECOM’s Ant Wilson, speaking on will continue to be a major concern for designers. >
www.cibsejournal.com August 2009 CIBSE Journal 37
CIBSEaug09 pp36-38 lighting.indd 37 23/7/09 15:57:00
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60