Lighting and Acoustics

Arch 353

Dr. Abdelrahman Elbakheit

References

عبيد , . الفتاح عبد محمد الدكتور أستاذ المعمارية االنارة 1اسس 2. Architectural Lighting, M. David Egan and Victor Olgyay.

Introduction:

- Colours in buildings can be used to describe or distinguish between building elements, internal spaces, structural components and decorations.

- The use of colours and lighting provide an interesting subject and that necessitate knowing colour properties that match the best lighting properties.

Colours influence on physical and psychological estate :

- It has been proofed recently that both colours and lighting levels have direct influence on humans physical and psychological conditions. ( Lint 1990).

- IBN Siena, the famous scholar discussed colours and their relationship with the deceases from one point and with personality from another.

- He pointed that people would have their normal colours when they are well and when they die they loose their clours and become pale.

- He also thought that he is likely to be able to cure an illness by giving a medicine containing the same colour produced by the illness on the human body.

- Nowadays the most famous scientist in the filed of colours is Fibber Bern lint. With his famous book ( colours psychology and it’s curing effect).

- Lint provided us with the colour coding we know: the use of green colour that relax the eye and help in concentration in surgical operations in hospital.

Colours influence on physical and psychological estate :

- Lint also advised that pregnant women are not ill persons, therefore their rooms/hospital should be coloured in flowers or apricot colours.

- Also elementary schools should be painted in yellowish and apricot colours, whereas high secondary schools should be in Green, Blue or Gray colours as they help in concentration and avoid distractions.

Colours and avoidance of accidents:

- Lint success continued and his advices on using colours for accident avoidance. (i.e., later became rules in the American navy).

- He advised that danger signs (i.e., warning of cliffs, dangers and hazards) should be in black and yellow colours. Also in digging machines etc…

- green for First Aid tools, medical Gases etc…- Red for fire fighting tools and machines.

Colours in Rooms:

- Lint suggested the use of worm colours like yellow and red and their combinations in living rooms, and blue in formal receptions.

- Apricot colours in dining rooms, and Green with its shades in kitchens.- Yellow colour in darker rooms to brighten them.- Flowers colours for bath rooms and bedrooms.- Dark colours for office or libraries.

Apparent colours of objects:

- Colours of objects can be perceived as physiological response to different light spectrums that fall on the eye of the observer.

- For this reason, we can find objects colours could change due to the type of the light source.

- Contrasts also plays an important role in how well we see colours compared to their backgrounds.

Therefore seeing colours depends on:

- Ability of objects to reflect different colour spectrums from falling light.- Nature of falling light.- Background colours and our eyes adaptability to seeing them.

Colour temperature Scale:

- It is important to describe colours according to an agreed scale/Gauge.- Therefore it was agreed to use the ‘Filament lamp’ as a standard light source. - Standard Filament Lamps change colours with the change of it temperatures, once

switched on it becomes more towards the red then moves into orange, then daylight or skylight.

- from this came the ‘correlated colour temperature CCT’, which is the temperature of the filament that matched the emitted colour of the light.

Colour rendering index: CRI

- It’s the level of being able to see the colour of object under a light source compared to its true colour under a standard lighting.

- Therefore CRI Depends on two factors:- Colour temperature for standard light source. (Daylight)- The similarity of the light source to the standard light source.

- Colour rendering index CRI is a measure to the quality of a light source compared to daylight.

- If the CRI is equal to 100 then the light source is equal to daylight. Or the light spectrum is similar to the spectrum of daylight.

Light mixing: We know light is composed of 7-different colour (wave length).

The primary colour are RED, BLUE, GREEN. When mixed together = WHITE COLOUR.

For architects coloured light can be used in theatres, exhibitions, commercial buildings

, Gardens, Swimming pools and fountains.

When mixing Red + Blue = MagentaWhen mixing Green+ Blue = CyanWhen mixing Red + Green = Yellow

Classification of Colours:

- From the previous lectures we can find different surfaces have similar reflectance or brightness, but they have different colours.

- How we can classify colours:

Munsell system of colour classification.

1. Hue: is the name of the colour

2. Brilliance, Value: is a measure of brilliance or how reflective is the colour.

V(v-1)= Brilliance or Reflectivity in %

1. Chroma, Saturation: is a measure for purity or richness, measure of level of White or grey in the colour.