Back to BlogOur latest blog is from Tal Janowitz, Business Development Manager for Anolis Lighting in North America, focusing on designer relations. With an MFA in Lighting Design, she specializes in the architectural and entertainment sectors and ensures that the architectural design community is fully informed about the latest Anolis Lighting technologies and the benefits they can bring to design projects.
Enhancing architecture with color when there is a time and a place
Visual experiences are very personal and architectural lighting plays a key role in how we view the world all around us. This is especially prevalent when it comes to the illumination of historic and culturally significant buildings. Often these architectural icons are the centerpiece of a city square or a must-see attraction for visiting tourists. While there may be a desire to bathe these locations in deep, rich color, it can often be more visually impactful to implement subtle, clean looks of white light, especially on buildings which were built before exterior illumination existed.
Architects all design with a specific purpose and an effective exterior lighting design should enhance that vision, not overtake it. Building materials and finishes are chosen to complement and enhance the architecture, colored light can sometimes distract from that. Lighting should bring out the best attributes of the architectural form, many times it’s best to start with a neutral palette, then enhance the visual experience using various versions of color temperatures, emphasizing the shadows, forms and textures of the structure.
Understanding that in situations where an architectural element is designed with the goal of using a colorful lighting palette, it is then our task to implement the most beneficial technology while maintaining the architecture as the star. Often times colored light has a specific role other than for illumination, such as to recognize special events and holidays. If the client does not invite color on their exterior walls, there is the option of illuminating the interior of the building and let the light shine through.
For permanent exterior lighting installations, fixtures should be discreet, so they do not become a focal point on the building site. To accomplish this, we can often hide the luminaires inside the architecture with a wide array of options such as the small ArcSource 4MC fixture. We recently worked with an old theatre which is approximately 100 years old, they didn’t want noticeable fixtures to distract from their historic architecture. To implement a lighting design to meet all their needs and overcome the design challenges, we tucked our RGBW IP65-rated LED luminaires behind their columns to add the magic of the color when needed.
When considering which lighting technology to use for exterior lighting, a designer should keep in mind, that specifying a white only fixture, will restrict a color addition at a later date. Most times, the only option at this point would be to use filters to achieve any colored light. By starting with an RGBW solution with the Anolis Flexible White technology, you can essentially “have your cake and eat it too”. Our Flexible White option allows the designer to select white light from a range of warm white at 2,000K to a cool 10,000K, in addition to an offering of plus and minus greens range.
Implementing the Anolis range of LED luminaires can change the color of the architecture without saturating it. Utilizing the infinite range of RGBW white and color options we are able to provide you with more design versatility creating a lighting design that can be poignant and offer a stunning visual statement of white light enhanced with subtle color too.
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