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With the evolution of lighting from HID to LED sources over the past number of years, many
manufacturers have had to make comprehensive modifications to their product ranges in order
to accommodate this development in the industry. For lighting companies, the advance has
required a radical shift in investment to include design facilities and the industrial designers to
manage them, as design capability is now the only true differentiator for lighting manufacturers
in South Africa.
designers are beginning to understand the benefit
of using linear lighting for the overall design theme.
Standard recessed lighting will be available on
our continent for years to come and it continues to
play an important role in certain types of commer-
cial office lighting installations, but it is linear light-
ing that has opened up new possibilities. Examples
here include the entrance halls of buildings such
Empire Place and 8 Melville Road, where vertical
and horizontal linear fittings have been used to de-
fine the space, creating – in the case of 8 Melville
Road where the fittings are reflected off the glass
doors – the illusion of lines of light.
Exposed concrete ceilings have, historically,
by Randal Wahl, Regent Lighting
T
he changes brought about by LEDs have
caused further disruption in that previous
barriers to entry into the lighting market
have evaporated, allowing pioneering newcomers
to enter markets that they would never have been
able break into in the past.
With a concomitant growing emphasis on cor-
porate identity and workplace environments, LED
lighting can play a vitally important role in comple-
menting innovative interior design, and it is in this
regard that the linear light source has come to the
fore. The days of lighting being a purely functional
element of a building to ensure that the required
lux levels are achieved, are diminishing rapidly as
LiD
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