Lighting leading up to, and mounted on, architectural social housing applications should be designed for amenity and safety, with robust lighting and vandal resistant lighting ensuring good illumination for a welcoming ambiance and clear visual cues to external signage.
To help maximise accessibility, light levels should be appropriate for the application, with due attention paid to the consistency of lighting in the transition between areas. Sudden changes in light level or illumination character can be disconcerting and disorienting, especially to those with visual impairments.
A clean, modern aesthetic is very important for performance lighting, and the luminaires chosen should produce a pleasant, diffused light. Robust lighting is critical in these environments to maintain durability and performance over time.
Lighting with a directional component can certainly bring an element of welcome definition to a lit scene. However, extreme care must be taken to ensure that any highlighting or spotlighting is done peripherally and sensitively to avoid causing difficulties for the visually impaired.
In many situations, lighting can be fully exposed to the elements, making high IP rated luminaires essential. It is therefore particularly important that lighting is especially robust and requires little in the way of maintenance.
Energy saving is vitally important as external lighting is often running for long periods. LEDs with specifically designed optics can vastly reduce energy usage as, for example, lighting with discharge lamps in a floodlight can be very inefficient.
Technical Support
Codes of practice will generally specify values of horizontal illuminance. It should be noted that light on horizontal planes is a poor predictor of the impression of brightness perceived by users of the area.
Lighting levels should conform to CIBSE LG9 and BS EN 12464-2:2014.
For further lighting advice speak to our technical sales team on 020 8254 2022 or e-mail technicalsales@designplan.co.uk.
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