International Lighting Magazine 2013/10 March White light Lighting designer views Guido Bianchi, Ta-Wei Lin and Ulrike Brandi Architects’ workshops Learning through doing

WHITE IS THE COLOUR OF PURITY Do you remember how LEDs started out? Decades ago, they were just colourful indicator lights in our car dashboards, or perhaps at home in our music centres. And when they became more powerful, the applications were broader, but they were still, well... colourful. This would turn out to be the main perception of LEDs. They were colourful lights, great for special effects, but not so good at producing beautiful, pure, white light. Fortunately, we now have LEDs available that give us genuine, white light, with a complete spectrum that allows us to see the colours around...

WHITE LED LIGHTING DIALOGUE white led light The past, present and future of white LED light leds stUdy for hosPitality Replacing halogen spots will please both your accountant and your customers Why designing your own office allows you to push the boundaries of lighting FEEDBACK iNside the iNNoVatioN kitcheN learNiNg throUgh doiNg Inspirational visits are educational - it’s official DOSSIER white light Hands-on lighting experience keeps Polish architects awake lUmiNoUs talks liViNg scUlPtUre sUstaiNaBle festiVal Bringing Californian sunlight to Belgium 3D technology that allows designers to focus...

White LED light By Ruth slavid In Germany, Italy and Taiwan, what are the trends regarding white light? What is important for you when you design lighting with it? PLG1212250148_67298 Luminous magazine #10_BW INT_NEW.indd 4

© Jeffrey Cheng PLG1212250148_67298 Luminous magazine #10_BW INT_NEW.indd 5

Guido Bianchi: “We want to be descriptive rather than interpretative.” With certain designers keen to demonstrate the show-stopping effects that they can achieve with coloured light, one might come to think that white light is just, well, white light. That it is simply light that is not coloured, the vanilla flavour that is necessary but not very exciting and always the same. The history of LEDs has tended to exacerbate this impression. The earliest LEDs were only available as colours, with white the most difficult type of light to achieve. And the first white LEDs tended to have a very cold...

Renovation of Brera Museum, Milan, Italy Architect: M. De Lucchi Lighting design: Rossi Bianchi lighting design Top: East-west section through the central yard. Middle: East-west section through the exhibition spaces and galleries. Bottom: Gallery section with accent and indirect white lighting from suspended fixtures. Guido Bianchi, Italy “In general we don’t use coloured light. We use the colours of white light.” PLG1212250148_67298 Luminous magazine #10_BW INT_NEW.indd 7

Top: The white light arcade, which smoothes the visual transition from the sidewalk, is lit by orange-tinted street lighting. Left: The facade’s lighting system consists of four major parts, namely the curtain wall, the light tower, frames and building corners. Right: To reflect the curvature of the building’s shape, the metal bars running along the facade are highlighted. PLG1212250148_67298 Luminous magazine #10_BW INT_NEW.indd 8 “Without a strong intent, coloured light seems too much like entertainment.”

“The white light LED creates more working hours for lighting designers.” it impossible to go back to other sources. But, he says, “I am still haunted by the old fashioned incandescent light source. Every time that I look at a museum or space where the lighting has been replaced by white LEDs with high CRI, the slightly purplish colour still bothers me. I cannot help but compare it to the “good old days” of incandescent light.” But he relishes the challenge of working with what he sees fundamentally as a different medium, saying, “I am glad that I am experiencing this major change in lighting...

Ulrike Brandi: “It is not only colour temperature that is important.” hand sketches to communicate their ideas, alongside models and technical drawings. Like Lin, Brandi and Bianchi are treating LEDs as a different kind of light from what went before – and relishing the challenge. “As you are using a different light source, you are offering a different experience,” says Bianchi. “Having a shop window with 1,000 Lux doesn’t mean that it is good. Having 800 Lux can be good too. The eye doesn’t measure absolute levels of light. It just measures contrast.” As we increasingly recognise the need to...

© Ulrike Brandi Licht Top: White light on lighting sketch, Town Hall, Bremen, Germany Lighting design: Ulrike Brandi Licht. Bottom: Implemented project with CDM lamps, Town Hall, Bremen, Germany Lighting design: Ulrike Brandi Licht. PLG1212250148_67298 Luminous magazine #10_BW INT_NEW.indd 11 Ulrike Brandi, Germany “I am much more interested in the different colour temperatures of white light.”

12 Platform PACTE LED research project, France hospitality By Ruth Slavid A research project in France has found that the energy currently consumed by halogen spots could be cut by up to 80 per cent if they were replaced with comparable LED alternatives. Philips has developed two lamps for this project, which are easy to use and that users of the spaces find provide a light quality that they are happy with. The primary targets for the new lamps are hotels and restaurants. A major research project in France has led to the development of LED lamps that can replace energy-hungry halogen spots. It...

© Kaory Studio PLG1212250148_67298 Luminous magazine #10_BW INT_NEW.indd 13

Two-thirds of guests are equally as happy with the LED spots. PACTE lamps for tests of lighting perception and ease of use. Some 80 volunteers invited to test centres were asked to evaluate the light from the LED spots and from halogen spots and comment on the quality without knowing which source had been used. Nearly three-quarters of them said that they would be prepared to replace halogen spots with the LEDs. A major study was also carried out within the hospitality industry, at hotels, cafes and restaurants. “Demonstrators” were asked to replace their halogen spots with the Pacte LED lamps,...