Designing without Downlights

Welcome to this PowerPoint presentation, originally given at LUXLive 2014 at ExCel, London. No voice – just words here.

Your first thought . . .

FIRST THOUGHTS: as a designer, we really should keep an open mind when we first look at a project.

Your first thought . . .

The concern is that we often go into new projects with a ceiling grid etched into our thought processes.

When I REALLY Started to Worry

Three things stand out as Occasions To Be Concerned . . .

Where do the downlights go?

An architect who approached me with a Voysey Arts and Crafts house, wondering HOW to deal with the downlights . . .

Do you want to see where we’ve putthe downlights?

A builder who installed downlights in a bathroom even though there were no downlights on the specification . . .

What do you mean, there’s something other than downlights?

And the LED manufacturers who know little about lighting, so think that downlights are the only thing they need to offer.

But what is a downlight?

Now that’s a very good question and needs clearing up.

Not all things that light downwards are downlights . . .

I class these as downlights . . .

I do not class these as downlights . . .

Some companies provide useful graphics that accurately describe how poor the lighting quality of a room can be.

A bit of history

It wasn’t always like this . . .

Back in the days when dinosaurs walks the earth . . .

Or Walsall, circa 1975, as we could call it.No, this is not a poor photograph – Walsall looked like this.

A young electrical engineer . . . who has no more idea of his destiny than a tea leaf know the history of the East India Co.

is probably reading the Thorn catalogue, looking for downlights to fit into Rushall Working Men’s Club – just down the road

The range of light sources was nothing to get excited about, unless you were in Walsall in 1975.

But only five years later

Yes – just five short years later (give or take)

Neue Kind auf dem Block; a company doing exciting things with GLS lamps and specular reflectors was making waves . . .

Claude Engle

Norman Foster

New ideas need evangelists – and patrons . .

To produce quantum-leaping lighting schemes like this.

And, as we know, that kind of ‘darklight’ technology has been finessed and improved and lives on.

But – another revolution was about to burst out of north London, with the arrival of an Italian company and a new lamp.

And this revolution wasn’t restricted to major architectural projects. This one went for the posh homes and glossy mags.

Sally Storey

And so it was that the small yet discreet LV downlight, powered by an iconic lamp began its journey to domination.

And there was no getting away from it, even in the most minimal of interiors . . .

Because it went on

Because it went on – and on

Because it went on – and on – and on

Because it went on – and on – and on – and on

Because it went on – and on – and on – and on – and on . . .

Because it went on – and on – and on – and on – and on – and on

You start to get the picture. You start to see the dead hand of the grid behind all of these elegant interiors

Is it a bedroom . . .

or perhaps it’s a dining room . . .

maybe even a hotel bar . . .

Until it comes down to the lighting of my friends’ kitchen . . .

or The Carpenters Arms in Chilthorne Domer . . .its all the same.

Thanks to Paul Thurlby for creating the image

Welcome to The Monkey Trap

The Monkey Trap is not about the coconut – its all about the IDEA that there’s only way of doing things.

Meanwhile . . .

Is there no other way?

As eny fule noe …

I was talking to a architect who lives near me; he said that the problem with downlighting is that any fool can design it.

I said that I could light a house without relying on downlights and do it better and cheaper . . .

First I spent ten minutes knocking out the downlighting scheme that the project developers would expect to use . . .

And then I produced a better scheme, using just a handful of feature downlights – and it WAS cheaper.

Yes, but what . . .

If a generation of lighting designers only have downlighting as their default – what’s to be done.

Are we left wandering the mental halls of our derelict mansion with nowhere to go . . .

or is there inspiration waiting to happen in the next room . . .

there’s theARCHITECTURE

Where does the inspiration come from – where are the influences that can bring our lighting design into fresh air?

Seeing space in a different way, we can begin to see that light does NOT need to come from small holes in the ceiling.

And the light doesn’t need to be round . . .

And complex spaces can be developed without recourse to lighting grids. PS: like Where’s Wally, there IS a downlight in this photo.

Architectural detail can give us the clues as to where the lighting needs to come from . . .

And sometimes, it can all happen around the corner.

Light shape can echo architectural space, as in this 15m-high elevator core.

Or the rhythm of a building can tell us where the lighting should be . . .

Until eventually, the architecture grows its own Light Form.

there’s theLIGHT FORM

Because all LIGHT has to come from somewhere (at least until OLED shows us differently . . .

We don’t need to worry about glare factors (driven by hard cut-off luminaires) anymore. Light can blossom.

Its only about generating LIGHT and combining ambient illumination with desk lighting.

Or – hey – let’s just hang some tubes fom the ceiling; because, WHY NOT?

And for those suffering downlight cold-turkey – why isn’t there a spotlight on that chair in the corner.

But maybe its one of Lee Broom’s creations!

And we have the Classics to enjoy – a Poul Henningsen environment anyone?

Well – they scare me . . .

And a light fitting that, by itself looks a bit dull and ordinary, becomes a joy of light expression when the crowd turn up.

there’s theLIGHT !

But we really ought to start our new journey of discovery with the medium itself . . .

No – I wouldn’t want it in my bedroom either . . .

Perfect shadows . . .

And an artificial moon comes to Sherborne, courtesy of BBC.

But then, the Light Catcher from Joost Heremans shares the same vibe . . .

Joost Heremans

and proves to be eminently practical.

And once you start playing that game . . .

and onREFLECTION

Light, as we know, doesn’t go round corners.Unless you ask it nicely.

Grand Effets, as they say in France. And all it needs is to get all of the furniture OUT of the room.

Me, I enjoy playing subtle visual games. Are all those fittings there or not?

and there’s alwaysCOLOUR hmmm …..

Its hard to ignore when its all the place, very like a rash.

Maybe once we’ve settled down and got used to the idea we might start seeing a more subtle use of colour . . .

Yes – that’s a bit more like it, I think.

On the other hand, there’s always the thrill of the wild side .

And I bet they drive a car like this.

and there is theHUMAN SPIRIT

I believe that there are three major influences to any lighting scheme: architceture – interior landscape – and . . .

People . . .

and we can always

BOLDLY GO …

Welcome to the future?

This is Ten Forward on USS Enterprise. It looks as though they’ve finally have got OLED worked out in the 24th century

Though they clearly have a long way to go in incorporating it into decent interior lighting design.

A mysterious snake of light that manages to project shadows of itself onto the ceiling. How do they do that?

101 uses of a dead cat . . .

And my personal favourite when it comes to hanging mammal ephemera on the wall.

Now then: I’d like to suggest …

Seriously, what a shift away from downlighting means is that we’ll start Google Searching things like these . . .

White opal glass ceiling lights . . .

White opal glass wall lights . . .

Funky designs of ceiling lights . . .

And funky designs of wall lights . . . . BECAUSE WE CAN!

that we need towork these guys

HARDER

And we’ll start to demand far more from the ‘decorative lighting’ guys. No one’s been talking to them for a long time!

Any fool can designa downlight scheme …

Back to architect friend in Shaftesbury.What he actually said was:

But we need YOU todesign properly …

Which is nice to hear . . .

And we won’t always pay you.

And the truth still hurts.

SO THERE!

Which explains why people still carry on using downlights.

One more thing . . .

You can’t do this with a downlight

Thank You