Brother, can you spare a zone? Better design, smarter budgets and the fight for lighting control awareness

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Defending Your Design and

Securing Your Budget Requires

Lighting Controls Awareness

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Credit(s) earned on completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

This course is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner ofhandling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

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Questions related to specific materials, methods, and services will be addressed at the conclusion of this presentation.

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While light levels may be objectively measured, how we perceive light is entirely subjective. Light affects us on a primal emotional level. On a biological level, our brains are hardwired for long nights huddled around camp fires. More than just cycles of light and dark, color temperatures tied to the sun’s appearance at high noon and sunrise/sunset play a central role in regulating our body’s biochemistry.

How light affects us changes throughout the course of our lives, can be culturally dependent and is ultimately, entirely personal.

In order to illicit the desired emotional response, a lighting designer needs to be able to make choices about where, when, and what kind of light to put on any given surface. These choices need to be perfectly reproducible but also flexible and able to adapt to changes in ambient conditions and space usage requirements.

This is what a lighting control system does. Designing a lighting control can be hard. Yes, it requires a thorough understanding of the technology, but that is not what makes it hard.What makes it hard is understanding how best to apply the technology within the context of the entirety of the job.

What does the system need to be able to do, both now and in the future? How, and by whom, is the system is going to be used on a daily basis? What sort of special events, overrides and/or automatic triggers may help the space achieve the client’s desired level of efficiency? First and foremost, have you guaranteed that someone with no formal training or experience can easily turn on the lights?

And what about the budget? It is easy to assume that hard means expensive. While that may be true for certain projects, it is by no means universally true. As I mentioned above, the difficult part is developing the detailed narrative.

The actual equipment and installation required may not be very expensive in the scheme of your project. In fact, part of good design involves finding elegant solutions that streamline parts, pieces and installation requirements. A well designed system, tailored for your project and your needs, should cost less than a generic system capable of “doing it all.” Often, after carefulanalysis, a basic time clock and some presets may be all that a project needs.

Make controls parts of your initial design conversation. They may not seem glamorous, but they give life to your design. They are the first thing your client experiences when they enter the space and the last thing they touch when they leave.

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ABSTRACT

Learning Points:

1. What lighting controls actually mean in the context of your overall design;

2. How light changes over time both objectively and subjectively;

3. How the way in which you go about specifying both lighting fixtures and lighting

controls can empower you throughout the entire construction process;

4. How to convince your client to spend money on lighting controls;

5. How a properly written Control System Narrative will protect both your lighting

fixture specifications and your control specifications against ill-conceived

attempts at value engineering.

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Resolved: The best way for lighting designers to defend their designs

against cost cutting efforts that compromise the integrity of their work is by

truly understanding the importance of lighting controls.

Further, it is imperative that the entire project team share this

understanding.

Finally, the most effective tool for encouraging Lighting Controls

Awareness is a document called the Lighting Control Narrative. It is the

first document that you should issue on any given project and it is arguably

the most important.

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R

AN A/C RESISTOR CIRCUIT

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A SOURCE OF LIGHT

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LOW VOLTAGE LIGHT

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A LIGHT EMITTING DIODE

LIGHT EMITTING DIODE

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ALTERNATING CURRENT

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WITH A DIODE (AKA RECTIFIER)

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FULL WAVE RECTIFIER CIRCUIT

LIGHT EMITTING DIODE+

-

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WITH FULL WAVE RECTIFICATION

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FULL WAVE RECTIFICATION WITH CAPACITORS

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FULL WAVE RECTIFICATION WITH CAPACITORS

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FORWARD PHASE DIMMABLE LED DRIVER

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Further, it is imperative that the entire project team share this

understanding.




the most important.

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WHAT IS AT STAKE?

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WHAT IS AT STAKE?

THE CLIENT’S MONEY

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WHAT IS AT STAKE?YOUR REPUTATION

AS A DESIGNER


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WHAT IS AT STAKE?


COMPLETING ASUCCESSFUL PROJECT

(PERSONAL SATISFACTION)

YOUR REPUTATIONAS A DESIGNER

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LIGHTING CONTROLS

AWARENESS

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STRATEGIES FOR GETTING YOUR DESIGN BUILT

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• Maximize Client Contact


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• Support From The Architect / Engineer


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• Lots Of Renderings And Mockups


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• Attend Every Single Meeting


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• Attend Every Single Meeting


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INITIAL MEETING

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UTILITY / SAFETY- Use of the space- Maintenance and operations- Actual and perceived safety

INITIAL MEETING

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ARCHITECTURE / LANDSCAPE- What are you lighting?- What is the relative importance of the lighting to the architecture- Is your lighting appropriate for the location?

INITIAL MEETING

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DRAMATIC / POINT OF VIEW- Who is the audience? Where are your primary views?- What is the experience that you’re trying to share?- How would you like people to relate to the space and to each other?

INITIAL MEETING

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PERFECT LIGHTING DESIGN

INITIAL MEETING

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PERFECT LIGHTING DESIGN

INITIAL MEETING

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PRIORITIES

Carpets

Shades

Millwork

Tile

Lighting Fixtures

Lighting Controls

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MAKING SOMETHING

SIMPLE IS EASY!

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MAKING SOMETHING

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EASY TO USE IS NOT SIMPLE!

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INDIVIDUAL ZONES

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LIGHTING CONTROLS

LIGHTING CONTROLS

AWARENESS

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Winning one hundred victories in one hundred

battles is not the pinnacle of skill.

OBLIGATORY SUN TZU QUOTE

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Winning one hundred victories in one hundred

battles is not the pinnacle of skill.

Subduing your enemy without fighting, that is the

pinnacle of skill.

OBLIGATORY SUN TZU QUOTE

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Further, it is imperative that the entire project construction team share this

understanding.




the most important.

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CONTROLLING LIGHT

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CONTROLLING LIGHT

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CONTROLLING LIGHT

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LIGHTING CONTROLS

AWARENESS

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Claude Monet Rouen Cathedral

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Paint By Number

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LIGHTING CONTROLS

AWARENESS

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CONTROL

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CONTROL

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CONTROL

YOUR

DESIGN

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CONTROL

YOUR

DESIGN

SIMPLE!

LIGHTING CONTROLS

AWARENESS

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YOUR

DESIGN

CONTROL

LIGHTING CONTROL

NARRATIVE

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LIGHTING CONTROL NARRATIVE

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• What Are The Critical Aspects Of Your Design?


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• How Are The Qualities Of Light Defined?• How Is Dimming Defined?


• Have You Defined A Complete Working System?


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• Does It Include Fixtures, Drivers And Controls?• What Constitutes A Change In The Specification?


• How Much Programming Does The Project Require?


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• Have You Outlined Your Design Intent In Detail?• Have You Defined The Client’s Expectations?


• Have You Defined A Complete Working System?• Does It Include Fixtures, Drivers And Controls?• What Constitutes A Change In The Specification?


• How Much Programming Does The Project Require?


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• What Makes The Space Successful?

• Have You Outlined Your Design Intent In Detail?

• What Is Important To The Design Team?• What Is Important To The Client?

• Have You Defined The Client’s Expectations?


• Have You Defined A Complete Working System?• Does It Include Fixtures, Drivers And Controls?• What Constitutes A Change In The Specification?

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LIGHTING CONTROLS

AWARENESS

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• Lighting design is important;

• Design is about making choices and striking the right balance between competing forces;

• Lighting is not a static element. It is constantly changing in response to time, need and individual perspective. That is what makes it both incredibly cool and incredibly challenging;

• Your ability to understand, manipulate and control light is what makes you a lighting designer;

• The lighting control system, whether simple or complex, is where it all begins;

• Your entry-point into this conversation with the client is the Lighting Control Narrative: developed in conjunction with the architect and the end-user, it describes in both flowing poetry and incredible specificity, exactly how the space needs to look, work and feel once everything is installed.

• Lighting fixtures and controls are tools working together, in harmony. You cannot make changes to any one part without considering the potential ramifications to the whole.

• Make the architect and owner allies in your shared vision for the space and efforts to value engineer the design will involve a simple question to the owner: which part of the cohesive whole that we’ve designed do you care the least about? What first impression, overall feeling, or level of functional use are YOU, the owner, willing to sacrifice?

CONCLUSION: LIGHTING CONTROLS AWARENESS

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This concludes The American Institute of Architects

Continuing Education Systems Course

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Technology

Brother, can you spare a zone? Better design, smarter budgets and the fight for lighting control awareness