To leave or not to leave perception up to chance!
Nergiz Arifoğlu
Lighting industry is moving at a great pace, not giving us any chance to lose our enthusiasm. Innovative solutions accompanied by LED, our light source standardized in the last decade, allows us, the designers to set sail for new horizons. Each day, we are uninterruptedly updated with a new information or a novel development. Even if the parameters for light technique and architectural lighting remain unchanged, the very new solutions that we experience in parallel with the development of LED light source break the routines of all building sector stakeholders and come as a revelation while we almost think “how come we used to solve this through conventional sources?”. LED is a new journey and we are trying to design the future with what LED brings, requires and provides.
Now, even the man on the street is aware of impacts of the light on human’s health, feelings, efficiency,
safety or preferences. Artificial light, i.e. lighting solutions other than the sunlight is a critical component of many fields including health, communication, psychology, sociology, marketing, and advertising. However, as often happens, our efforts to transform the world into an uninhabitable place due to light pollution and wastes through fast and uncontrolled consumption are escalating unconsciously.
With the light technology pacing at such speed around artificial intelligence, the very fact that the lighting needs now entail designing should neither be ignored nor omitted. It is evident that an effective and conscious solution is imminent with the sight of an experienced and trained designer and a technical staff to detail and apply such design.
A well-designed luminaire, produced through R&D process is basically an optical and electronic device. The very reason for the existence of lighting design is to make tailored-made selections from such parameters and to attain the right impact at the right time and place. The practitioners of this line of work are Architectural Lighting Designers, i.e. trained professionals who are capable of keeping pace with the aforementioned rapid technological changes, of adopting optimally the latest solutions to the buildings while preserving aesthetics, techniques, emotions and the nature.
Lighting is the mindful use of artificial light in order to obtain functional and aesthetical impressions, i.e. the
designing of light. Although we speak affluently on the importance of designing the light, we see that we still have not reached the level of awareness we seek. Light is the most significant element that drives our lives without being noticed. Humans get around 80% of its perception through their eyes. Considering that the rate of our misperceptions is 80%, how come we may leave that to chance?
Today, how unrealistic it is for an investor to leave the intended message to luck without designing the perception of space. However, lighting, the very key element to direct perception, may sometimes be reduced to just a simple purchase item. If we admit that the most challenging and costly part is to rectify/replace what has already been done, we then also admit that architectural lighting design is a design discipline, a must for a structure.
Evaluating numerous parameters including science, technique, aesthetic, health, psychology etc., lighting
design has morphed into a design principle so precious that should not be left to mere chances. Involvement of a lighting designer into the project enables the prior management of all cost elements that may be lost during and after the investment.
Not only electric energy is efficiently used but also the energy of both structural design and implementation team is preserved against redundant use. In short, if investors prefer to get support from the right professionals, specialized in “lighting” right from the start, they would guarantee to benefit from countless parameters, including but not limited to time, cost, consumption, investment, recycle, communication, image etc., with the state-of-the-art technology throughout the process.
I believe that the contribution of light and illumination to people’s livings and feelings would attain its genuine value through right designs. And I iterate: “Light Must Be Designed on Any Ground”.