LIGHTING
There are four basic lighting categories: • General or Ambient lighting • Task lighting • Accent lighting • Decorative lighting
All four functions of light should be used within a room to create to create a fully usable, adaptive space. Good lighting does not draw attention to itself but to the other design aspects of the environment. GENERAL/AMB I ENT L IGHT ING • Provides an area with soft general illumination that fills the volume of a room with a glow of light and softens the shadows on people’s faces it is the most important of the four functions of light. • Most homes are wired to have a central light hanging from the ceiling in the middle of each room to provide general lighting. • The best ambient light comes from sources that bounce illumination off the ceiling and walls, such as opaque bottom wall sconces, torchieres, chandeliers, indirect pendants and cove lighting can provide a subtle general illumination; you could call it the open hearth effect where the room seems to be filled with the light of a glowing fire. Or also wall-washing. • Just filling a room with table lamps is not an adequate source of general illumination. The space becomes a lampshade show room where the lamp shades are the 1st thing people see as they enter. TASK L IGHT ING • Provides concentrated lighting used to illuminate one area brightly – for example a work surface, desk or reading chair. • The optimal task light is located between your head and the work surface, that’s why lighting from above isn’t a good source of task light, because your head casts a shadow onto your book, or computer keyboard. • Good sources of task lighting are portable task lamps, and table and bedside lamps that are low enough to avoid casting a shadow from the head. • Overhead lighting or incorrectly placed task lighting often contributes to the problem of ‘veiling reflection’ this occurs when light comes from the ceiling directly in front of you hitting the paper at such an angle that the glare is reflected directly into your eyes. This causes eye fatigue. Think of it as the mirror like reflection of a light source on a shiny surface. • Keep table lamps in proportion to the table. As a general rule, the shade should be approximately two-thirds the height of the lamp base, deep enough so that a small portion of the neck (the fitting between the lamp and socket) is visible, and about one-and-a-half times the width of the lamp base.
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