When designing a building in the past, the main exterior architectural concepts were façade decoration and ornamentation. Today, however, façade lighting has a leading role in the decoration and identity of modern buildings. The low consumption of LED lights combined with the low heat dispersion and great flexibility of the materials and the technologies on which they are based allow for the creation of unique stylistic and artistic façades.
Architecture that appears neutral during the day and blends unassumingly into its setting can turn out to be a work of art at night. Light can envelop a structure like a second skin. If lighting units are integrated in a façade so that they are concealed or are mounted inconspicuously away from a façade, this produces a particularly striking surprise effect. Selectively configured light structures result in fascinating patterns of light that can redefine a building. But all this to become practically operational needs extra attention so as to address the associated concerns of environment and efficiency, yet depict minute architectural details.
The form of façades is determined not only by their material and shape but also by the light and its direction and colour. The appearance of a façade alters during the course of the day due to the changing direction of light and the varying components of diffuse and direct light.
Different light distributions and the use of lighting control systems give façades an appearance of their own at night. Varying illuminances differentiate components or areas of a façade. Grazing light emphasises façade details while wash lighting facades allow them to appear in their entirety. Shining any light beyond the façade surfaces, either to the sides or over the top, should be avoided. Nightscapes today are created by illuminated building façades facilitating orientation, conveying messages, communicating emotions and creating attention.
Keeping all this in mind, contemporary lighting solutions for building façades need to create added value for local authorities or have architectural or economic merit by making a location more beautiful and safer, showing a building off in the right light or getting a positive corporate image across. Achieving this demands great aesthetic design sensibility.
Enhanced emphasis on façade lighting
The number of buildings that have illuminated façades is increasing sharply. Because of architectural, societal and technological changes, lighting design faces new challenges. Saving energy is an omnipresent challenge, façade lighting must, therefore, get to grips with ecological compatibility issues. All lighting entails increased expenditure on energy.
Light that is not properly directed onto a façade is perceived as distracting and an unnecessary waste of light. The ultimate goal is obtaining the best possible efficiency from lighting. Façade-integrated systems are photometrically optimised using lens technologies and covers and direct light onto the surface that is to be illuminated in a targeted manner. This makes it possible to overcome the drawbacks of direct illumination, i.e. distracting glare in indoor spaces and wasted scattered light. This makes it possible, despite façade lighting’s highly creative aspirations, to reconcile façade lighting with ecological requirements.
Façade lighting – a marketing gimmick
Society is in a state of change and many people are turning night into day. They want to carry on having fun late into the evening, seek entertainment and information and, in most of the instances, welcome surprises. Even so, safety and orientation must be ensured despite the darkness. Façade lighting shapes the image of a townscape, attracts attention and lures in tourists. This boosts revenues and enhances prestige. It also gives investors an economic incentive to gentrify real estate and upgrade property usage, thus making it economically more attractive. Façade lighting creates added cultural value.
Environment and façade lighting
Added cultural value must be weighed against the responsibility while dealing with the surroundings and the environment. Improper use of night-time lighting can have a negative impact on the environment. Such lighting disrupts the biological processes of creatures that are sensitive to light. Therefore, lighting designers and architects should aim to find a balance between using light in a way that saves resources and creates added cultural value.
Towns and municipalities use many activities to promote tourism, make a business location attractive or establish a residential district. Illuminating façades at night is a good way of improving the attractiveness of a public space. People love to spend their evening hours in towns and squares. They look for excitement, and interactive communications of this level plays a pivotal role. Illuminated architecture shapes a townscape and gives it a personality.
Improving energy efficiency
Energy-efficiency is another distinctive characteristic of professional lighting concepts. Vertical façade lighting gets noticed from afar, making it easier for passers-by to get their bearings and making them feel more secure. Façade lighting can be used in a variety of ways. Among other things, it is a modern tool that can be used to make a landmark structure more appealing. This has to be balanced against the ambitious energy saving targets adopted by municipalities and companies. And today’s intelligent lighting solutions provide a way out of this dichotomy.
LED lighting built into a façade or mounted close to it needs relatively little energy to generate the required luminance levels. LED lighting is unobtrusive and energy-efficient. LED luminaires fitted in window reveals consume less energy at night than a small domestic appliance. Light is directed onto the surfaces that are to be illuminated in a targeted manner by optics and shutters. This prevents stray light and the associated light pollution. Adding to it is that each light source is dimmable and controllable, making it possible to set individual switch-on times and intensities.
Enhancing safety and security
Illuminated façades help make visitors and passers-by feel more secure. They are therefore an important aspect of integral lighting design. Dark areas where people could hide are lit thus mitigating against vandalism. The extent to which an illuminated façade can improve security and enhance a location’s image is a matter of façade design keeping in view the fact that vertically illuminated surfaces, assuming identical luminance, are perceived as brighter than horizontal illumination making passers-by feel more secure.
New media offers new possibilities
Facade lighting is clearly part of a lighting designer’s scope of work. In the past, however, it did not present much design scope. In fact, façade lighting has only become a real topic of attention in the last 20 years. In the 1990s, so-called ‘City Beautification’ led to lit façades being considered a must within our urban culture. That has now taken a turn for the better. Today we can divide façade lighting into four different categories, or levels of expertise.
The first to mention are façades that are not illuminated. That is a shame, but as a rule better than the second category, which refers to façades that are poorly lit. When it comes to architectural lighting, this can also include the misconception that two-dimensional projections have something to do with enhancing the architecture.
Thirdly, there are a large number of façades that seem to be illuminated in the same way, leaving them looking boring or not in line with the times. The use of colour in such cases does not change the overall impression. It is generally historic façades featuring columns and pillars that fall into this category. The lighting solution appears to be obvious, and in a city as rich in culture as St. Petersburg, which has many similar looking façades, it can turn a design opportunity into an urban concept that is dull. Design means lighting every façade individually to purposefully bring out its charm and quality.
And finally, façades that are well designed and illuminated. Professional lighting designers can apply conventional lighting equipment or exploit the opportunities state-of-the-art digital lighting offers to implement different techniques to achieve a wide range of solutions. This includes creating a media façade. However, care is needed. Inexperienced or less creative designers quickly run the risk of transforming a façade into a two-dimensional media wall.
In this context: where does the media content end and where does the architectural lighting begin? Opinions vary immensely, and ignorance often stands in the way of helpful discussion. The fact is that we live in the age of media and digitalisation and this also affects modern architecture. This does not mean that we have to sink into despair or anxiety. Toyo Ito‘s well-known Tower of Winds project, the lighting for which was designed by Kaoru Mende, is a fine example of the true meaning of media architecture and was celebrated back in 1986 as lighting design – at a time when LEDs were still two decades away from being taken seriously as a light source.
And yet the question still remains as to how media design and architecture can be integrated without one taking the lead over the other. Converting a building, giving it a new image and lease of life while maintaining its historic identity is one of the exciting challenges of architecture. Light can be extremely helpful in this context. Many designers regard light solely as a means for accentuation. And yet there are far more subtle ways of using light, if it is applied indirectly or integrated into the architecture to achieve its ‘centre-stage’ role.
