Luminous 14 - Discussing with Light by Luminous – International Lighting Magazine - ILR

International Lighting Magazine 2014/14 Autumn Issue

Discussing with light New demonstration center Architects provide visions and challenges

Interview with Claudia Paz BCP Affinity, Lima, Peru

2 EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL In 1948 Philips introduced a magazine called the International Lighting Review. Now called Luminous, the magazine has grown to be a key forum for communicating with the lighting community. As the Chief Design Officer of Royal Philips, I meet many customers from around the world and a recurring topic of discussion is how we can better partner and collaborate to shape innovation, making it meaningful and more relevant. I believe Luminous provides us with a great platform for sharing ideas, discussing new technologies and how these will open up new possibilities in creating exciting new lighting experiences. Inspiring others to action normally needs a combination of actions, words and images. This is the theme for this edition of Luminous; ‘Discussing with Light’. Any discussion around the incredible possibilities of light needs to employ a variety of media to be effective. In this edition of Luminous you will find creative ways in which people have been doing exactly this. One of the starting points in any discussion is choosing the appropriate language. Nathalie Rozot’s work helps by creating a vocabulary of light. As a lecturer at the renowned Parsons Design School, and an active lighting designer, she is well placed to help facilitate this and explore how we can communicate the incredible possibilities of light more effectively. While describing light effects with words is one approach, nothing replaces seeing the interaction of light in application. I hope you will also be inspired by the interviews with the designers of the new Lighting Application Center on The High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. Our new Lighting Application Center takes over from the former Eindhoven City Center facility which has served more than 300,000 visitors since it opened in 1991. A key theme of the new facility is to show how digitizing lighting opens up many new ways in which we can connect with people and truly understand the impact that light can have on them, both emotionally and physically. The demonstrations of what light can do for individuals, communities, businesses and large institutions such as schools and hospitals really help build understanding of the impact that connected lighting will have on all our lives. Ensuring a future pipeline of new talent into the profession is also very important. Our recent collaboration with Ecole Bleue in Paris encouraged students to take an uninhibited approach to exploring the potential of OLED. I hope this will also inspire you to think about new ways to work with this exciting new technology. Our final article builds on the potential of uninhibited creativity, in this case when applied to transparent or translucent glass media facades. Here we take a look at ways in which our Innovations are helping designers to find new ways that buildings can communicate their identity, another great example of ‘discussing with light’. I hope that you are inspired by this edition and look forward to our continued dialogue. Happy reading. Sean Carney Chief Design Officer, Philips

CONTENT 3

Discussing with light Going shopping

On the factory floor

Transparent media faรงade

Working environment

Translucent media faรงade

On being a phototect

DIALOGUE Inspiring Lima

Claudia Paz interview, lighting designer, Lima, Peru

Ryder Hall Art Studio, Northeastern University, Boston, USA

Outdoor Lighting Application Center, Philips Lighting, Lyon, France

Nathalie Rozot interview, photoplanner, New York, United States

Tjep, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

PROJECTS

Inbo, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

FEEDBACK Designing light objects

Re-think the ceiling

OLED Workshop, Ecole Bleue, Paris, France

OneSpace

A showcase for light

Material and colour dialogue

A contrast in black and white

Smart city experience

Learning by seeing and doing

Winner of a Hue lamp kit

Lighting Application Center, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

LAVA - Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, Stuttgart, Germany

Thinc Design, New York, United States

RGBW versus RGBA mixing

Lighting application center, Chengdu, China

Roberto Serra

4 Onderwerp

Onderwerp 5

BCP AFFINITY, LIMA, PERU

Inspiring

Lima

By Ludmila Svistunova

6 light source

BCP wanted to update the look of their headquarters to celebrate a modern and progressive Peruvian society.

Banco del Crédito de Peru (BCP) wanted to redesign its headquarters in Lima to reflect its new strategy of being closer to people. With the help of a multinational team, lighting designer Claudia Paz created BCP Affinity, an interactive façade for the building that changed the face of one part of the city. How did you become involved in the update of the façade for the headquarters of BCP? The original team of designers came up with an idea of a media screen, similar to what you would see in Times Square, but fortunately, local rules do not allow the installation of such large advertisements on buildings. The bank then contacted me, because it knew I was not a designer who specializes in media screens – I like integrating light and architecture, so that light has meaning for a city and its people. What was your vision for the façade and how did you come up with your concept for BCP Affinity? Normally, when I do a lighting design, I integrate it into the architecture but since the BCP building did not have strong aesthetics, I chose instead to use it as the canvas for an art piece for the city. BCP is the largest Peruvian bank, and it was trying to change its strategy and image to bring it closer to people. This is what I wanted the installation to reflect – I did not want it to be yet another media installation, but a source of inspiration for the people of Lima. This is why the client liked my concept and the idea behind it.

How did the location of the building affect your concept and choices? In the corner where the building is located there is no fine architecture, only cars and pollution. The area needed a powerful concept, because it was lacking in character. One day, I was standing by the building and looked up – and that was when I understood that I needed to see something there that would inspire me. That’s what makes the shows so magical – standing on the podium, surrounded by the sound, you don’t hear the noise of the cars, and all you see is the façade. It is now a corner of inspiration. Which lighting effects are possible? We had to do several types of shows for different people. Some like experiences with more participation and creating new things. For them, we have shows with music. In one, you can add notes to a background piano melody, and another uses a violin in a similar way, but you can also open and close the façade with orange and blue ArchiPoints. Other shows are inspired by nature. We have a moving sun with wind sounds and the sound of sand falling. It’s a very calm, immersive show. Inspired by an installation in New York, I also came up with the idea of a rain effect. It doesn’t really rain much here in Lima otherwise! Fireworks are more of a Christmas effect. We also have constellations where you can switch on the stars of your choice. Finally, we have the aurora with violet, purple and pink colours. Nature-inspired effects fit organically with the idea of an interactive installation, because we are naturally compelled to interact, for instance, with the rain.

light source 7

Three dimensional façade with its LED canvas.

8 light source

Interactive LED outdoor podium with multi-touch sensors.

What was the role of Arquileds on this project? Arquileds played a key part in the project. There is no support for interactive technology in Peru – it’s very difficult to find people with the necessary expertise, and as a lighting designer, I need support on complex projects. Arquileds is a company that hires the professionals I need from around the world, and it hired the entire team for the BCP Affinity project and took care of contracts and logistics. Arquileds also employed Nicholas Cheung from London to do the art direction. Why did you choose to use a 3D mesh and LED solutions on this façade? The design had to work on two levels. A person who is on the podium needed to feel the connection to the façade, and a person in a car a long way away also needed to see the façade and observe some movement - it could not be static. Therefore I did not want to have a flat surface – I wanted the lights and the effects to be organic and volumetric. I decided to use a 3D effect to make the installation more alive. With the LEDs, we chose the simplest solution possible; instead of using different layers of glass with LEDs inside, we have a lot of nodes floating within a structure, and the ArchiPoints add the powerful brightness at the end of the show. How was the mock-up done? What were the main parameters that you had to adjust? We had a really great collaboration with Philips Color Kinetics in Boston. The company sent us fixtures with which to do a mock-up. It also provided us with the necessary samples, ran tests and

offered recommendations, so that we could decide what we wanted to do and what the fastest way to install would be. Engineers from Color Kinetics also helped us to come up with the best solution for connectors, which made the installation really easy. What were the biggest challenges on this project? There were two main challenges. First, even though the client liked my concept, I had to persuade them not to use any corporate identifiers on the façade, since it’s an art piece and not an advertisement, as well as to explain what an interactive façade is without any existing examples. Working with a multinational team was also difficult. Sometimes it was hard to express what I wanted due to language and cultural barriers. Since the project was unique, we could not learn from previous experience, and we constantly had to experiment. What are the future plans for this façade? The idea is to change the façade every year, now that people have learned to interact with it. I’m an architect, so the idea is to explore more architectural forms. I am inspired by the kaleidoscope: we could create a low-resolution three-dimensional façade, where you can see different shapes from different angles. What experiences in your life have inspired and influenced your work? A major source of inspiration is my five-year-old daughter. When I took her on site and saw her learn to use the podium and laugh, I knew that’s what I wanted: to see other children being just as happy and to teach them to be creative.

light source 9

The content includes such effects as constellations, sand and rain.

Client Banco del Crédito de Peru (BCP) Architectural façade design Felipe Ferrer, V.Oid Light concept Claudia Paz Artistic direction Claudia Paz and Nicholas Cheung Structure design and lighting and production Cesar Castro, Arquileds Interactive programmer Chris Plant, Colour Burst Sound design Neil Spragg, Future Sound Design Non interactive programmer Ruby Rosenthal and Cesar Castro

Websites www.viabcp.com www.claudiapaz.com www.greatwesternstudios.com www.arquileds.com

Luminaires Philips Color Kinetics iColor Flex MX gen2 ArchiPoint iColor Powecore

The installation, named dot.vote, was made possible by the collaboration of students, instructors, and partnering companies.

10 Concept corner

To fix the low-resolution LED dots, transparent polycarbonate panels were mounted on aluminum Unistrut suspended from the glass mullions inside the studio.

RYDER HALL ART STUDIO, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, USA

Transparent

media façade By Susanne Seitinger, Maureen Quinlan and Megan Haas

In the heart of Boston on Northeastern University’s campus, six graduate students and assistant professor Dietmar Offenhuber have created an urban light installation as part of the university’s masters programme in information design and visualisation. For the final project in the course “Informationdesign for dynamic media and light”, students were asked to gather information about the campus, students, or a specific building and translate it into an information display. Several ideas were proposed including showing the library’s capacity or the number of miles run at the gym. The group settled on asking students about the mood on campus during finals week. The students created a website interface optimised for mobile phones and

coded a custom software interface for a programmable LED lighting infrastructure. They used Processing, a programming language created to enable designers and artists to develop custom code. The students’ software transformed the data collected from participants about the campus mood into pixels of light on the physical installation, which was also designedby the students. “We wanted to use a display medium that blends with the architecture, rather than attaches to it,”

said assistant professor Dietmar Offenhuber. The class was keen to created a design that faced out toward the heart of campus, revealing hidden knowledge and intriguing passersby. Once the software and display were created, the students promoted their project to gather the data. Taken online, through a mobile app, or with wireless buttons in front of Ryder Hall, the poll asked community members if they felt

Transparent polycarbonate panels allowed the team to position the LED pixels 8.8 cm from the glass façade. The customized panels were equipped with iColor Flex SLX fixtures.

anxious, relieved, determined, excited, or exhausted. Once a vote was tallied, several LED nodes lit up on the installation. The more votes each emotion received, the larger each color-coded light cluster became. “We thought it could be nice to let people see their voice or to complain in a visual way,” said Miriam Zisook, a PhD student studying emotional displays in healthcare. Text scrolled across the installation to label each cluster with an emotion and a bar chart then appeared with the percentages of each emotion. The low-resolution nature of the display with only 900 pixels presented an exciting challenge and design constraint for the different data representations. “I like the

Concept corner 11

Complete installation during fine-tuning and lighting test on the second floor. 900 LED pixels made up the low-resolution display.

idea of tangible and accessible data that blends into the environment,” said Ashley Treni, a student of information design. “Lights naturally draw your attention, but despite being so bright and in your face, light is a very passive way of instigating curiosity”. The installation, named dot.vote, was made possible by the collaboration of students, instructors, and partnering companies. Philips Color Kinetics provided the LED fixtures, iColor Flex SLX, for the display, adding to the existing partnership between Northeastern and Philips Color Kinetics. This relationship stems from Northeastern’s co-op programme,

in which students work full-time for sixmonth cycles at the Philips Color Kinetics headquarters in Burlington, MA as part of their education. The Processing language which the students used to create the custom software for the façade was developed specially for creative practitioners. The software is integrated with an Ethernetbased Philips Color Kinetics control system consisting of a Light System Engine and three 90 sPDS-480ca power and data supplies. Each port on the power and data supplies powers one chain of 50 LED pixels. Some 18 iColor Flex SLX chains were also used. Website www.northeastern.edu/visualization/

Elevation of the customized CNC routed façade panels with 36 LED nodes each.

12 Concept corner

Set in the city center, the contemporary building at OLAC was ideal for demonstrating a media façade. It has an 8m-high tower with translucent glass facades, the highest point in the area.

The same installation is repeated on each of the three floors of the tower. To cover all the three floors, 4970 LED dots were needed, mounted on 24 customized grids.

OUTDOOR LIGHTING APPLICATION CENTER, PHILIPS LIGHTING, LYON, FRANCE

Translucent

media façade By Natacha Lameyre

As soon as night falls, the show starts. In the Outdoor Lighting Application Center, call OLAC, Philips Lighting provides a fascinating trip through a range of innovative lighting scenarios. The potential for working with LED lighting is shown in many ways: the integration of products in small spaces, adjusting the colour temperature to suit the material, dynamic colour changes through the use of DMX and Ethernet protocol controls. LED can also turn buildings into communicative interfaces. Images, videos, brand communication, artistic content with dynamic effects - the media façade is a new and attractive way to communicate with users of the space.

Set in the city center, the contemporary building at OLAC was ideal for demonstrating a media façade. It has an 8 m-high tower with translucent glass facades, the highest point in the area. The window panels are made from a highly diffusing glass. We decided to play with the interaction between light and frosted windows and to place the LED pixels behind the glass panels.

of 10 cm between the LEDs and the diffusing glass gave the best results.

During a night test, we first determined the pixel pitch and the distance between the pixels and the windows. We wanted to be able to see the LED dots with a softly diffused effect around them. A pitch of 10 cm between each pixel and a distance

Please contact your Philips representative if you would like to visit OLAC.

In terms of lighting fixtures, iColorFlex LMX gen2 from Philips Color Kinetics was used, fixed to the customized grids. The pixels face the glass panels. The complete installation allowed us to display dynamic content which enriches the lighting scenario demonstrated today at OLAC.

The customized grids equipped with iColorFlex LMX gen2 are mounted behind each window. They are composed of flexible PVC coated cables and stainless steel rods.

Concept corner 13

To fix the dots behind the windows with a regular spacing, we used customized mounting grids from RGB Lights. Each grid corresponds to the dimension of one window.

We decided to play with the interaction between light and frosted windows Implantation des panneaux

Elevation showing one level of the side façade including cabling per customized grids. Each strand consists of 50 individually addressable LED nodes, featuring integration of power, communication, and control. A Pharos controller controls this large-scale Ethernet LED installation.

Vue de l'intérieur de la tour P8

P5 P6

5.6

5.1

4.7

4.1

3.8

3.1

2.8

2.1

1.7

1.1

leader cable

Power data supply

14 Platform NATHALIE ROZOT, LIGHTING DESIGNER, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

On being a phototect By Ludmila Svystunova

The photoplanner, professor at Parsons The New School for Design and founder of the lighting-design think tank PhoScope, talked to Luminous about her views on the key debates in lighting design culture, education and research, as well as about PhosWords – a collection of light-relatedneologisms aimed at increasing awareness of current lighting issues.

Nathalie Rozot

How did you become a lighting designer? Nathalie Rozot: I was trained in interior design, but it’s the only discipline which I never practised. I worked in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and exhibition design, and by chance landed in a lighting-design company around 2000. I was invited to teach at Parsons’ graduate programme in lighting design shortly after that, and I spent a summer studying the physics of light and the physiology of vision to learn as much as possible about lighting. I became really interested in the complexity of light and fascinated by the concept that in lighting nothing is absolute and everything is relative. I found my true calling once I realised this was a field where you design, as I like to say, in at least five dimensions.

What did you teach at Parsons? At first I taught graphics and drawing techniques for lighting design, but very quickly I was asked to teach Studio, and now I’m the lead in the thesis faculty. For you, what are the key issues when discussing light? I think that currently two key issues in lighting design are ergonomics and energy. Ergonomics is a word I prefer to health, because I find that it is more inclusive of design. At times these two issues conflict, and it’s an interesting challenge. We should aspire to build the right and the just light. What are the critical aspects of this discussion? Recently, I have also been thinking that

PLATFORM 15

Definitions from PhosWords: disphotocize v. to remove light from (Brit. disphotocise) -ing -ed. [f. L. dis- 'apart' + Gk. phôs-, phōt- 'light'] phosform v. to shape with light -ed -ing. syn. photomorph [f. Gk. phôs-, phōt- 'light' + L. fōrma 'form']

we need to radically disrupt the design culture at large. As a colleague of mine put it, there is a “daytime bias,” and we need a fundamental cultural shift in design. One way is for lighting designers to become more fluent in general design issues. We should raise our aspirations. Lighting designers should aspire to be the lead designers on large pluri-disciplinary projects, because for some projects a photocentric approach is relevant, especially today. Who do you think are the key stakeholders that need to be affected to change this culture? Education. We are experiencing a major change in the demographics of lightingdesign practitioners. Many of my peers are latecomers to the field of light, with a background in liberal arts such as design

or fine arts, or a technical one, or both, or come from other fields, but the new generation of practitioners was trained as lighting designers. We are creating a subculture of lighting-design specialists, and I think we need to broaden the lighting education curriculum and include a larger design and research skillset. Moving on now to your think tank, PhoScope. How was it born? I have always interconnected practice and theory in my work, so it is probably where and when the concept of PhoScope started. From the start, I found the field of lighting design a curse because of the absence of critical discourse. Yet it was also a blessing because it was so rich with many opportunities for both practice and study. I decided around 2006 to reconnect

my practice and my research interests. At the same time, I began teaching more but found no institutional support for my critical study. In lighting design, we lack funding programmes and mechanisms to support speculative work and critical research - architects have more of a chance to be funded for research on lighting topics than do lighting designers. This motivated me to take a stand, and when some former colleagues and students also expressed an interest in working with me, PhoScope came into being. What are its main activities? PhoScope has three main areas of activity. PhoShaping encompasses experimental, speculative design projects. PhosForum aims to launch public programmes that go beyond the project-based presentations we

16 PLATFORM

photandrous adj. pertaining to light with masculine qualities. photandrously adv. photandrousness n. ant. photogynous. [f. Gk. phôs-, phōt- 'light' + Gk. andros 'man'] photogynous adj. of light that has feminine qualities. photogynously adv. photogynousness n. ant. photandrous. [f. Gk. phôs-, phōt- 'light' + Gk. gunē 'woman']

are accustomed to in our field, and to expand our culture with more critical conversations. We are currently exploring a collaboration with another organizsation, Green Light New York. PhotoTexts are writings on the theoretical issues that are developed or discussed in the other two activities. Some drafts are in the works, and a few critical texts are available on the PhoScope website. Ultimately, I’m aspiring to counter the intellectual paucity we contend with in our field. I am very concerned by the global professionalisation of academia. More and more professionals are teaching as adjuncts, and this happens at the expense of scholarship and theory that we desperately need to develop in lighting.

I envision that PhoScope can serve as a critical node in a wider network of professional and academic practices and connect the audience to critical issues. Can you give some examples of the critical research projects in which you have engaged? One PhoShaping project was based on my proposition to approach Times Square as a paradox: it’s an energy-hungry environment that everybody loves to hate and hates to love, so how could it make sense? I proposed that the billboards formed an exterior space, and explored models where we could integrate exterior lighting and renewable energy in sustainable urban ecosystems.

I am especially interested in this notion of urban lighting as part of urban ecosystems. I see it as a broad area with many subtopics, but to build a theoretical foundation requires finding or inventing models to explore our nocturnal environments. I have found inspiration in architectural theory and from authors who studied popular culture and forces that drive the built environment, but lighting is not urban design and it’s not architectural design: we need our own models. How was PhosWords developed? PhoScope was born at the same time as the idea of PhosWords. In Greek, Phos or Photo means light, and scope – target. I realized that phot was an existing word, meaning a unit of light, and so was

PLATFORM 17

photopolis n. a city with or of light and or lighting. pl. photopolises. syn. metrophotopolis megaphotopolis [f. Gk. phôs-, phōt- 'light' + Gk. pólis 'city'] phototecture n. the discipline of architectural lighting design. phototect n. phototectural adj. phototecturally adv. [f. Gk. phôs-, phōt- 'light' + Gk. tektōn 'builder']

photology, which meant the science of light, but almost nobody knew those and almost everybody associated photo with photography. There was no reason why we could not claim this Greek root or stress that it is about light. The idea of a whole new vocabulary then became a manifesto in the form of an etymological game, one word led to another, and the first edition comprised more than 400 words. I was fortunate to receive a residency at the MacDowell Artist Colony for three consecutive years where I did most of this work. Getting these residencies was not only encouraging, but also provided a supportive environment and allowed for great continuity in my thinking about PhoScope and the PhosWords project.

I regularly create more words and there is a second edition coming with over 500 words. Next year, for the International Year of Light, we will launch a competition for new words to engage the lighting community in this project. I would also really like the words to be translated into French and Spanish. What are some of your favourite PhosWords and why? Phototect – I find very effective; when someone says, I’m an architect, and I respond, I’m a phototect, it makes a statement. Photopolis – because everybody knows what it means! Photandrous and photogynous – light with masculine or feminine qualities, respectively.

Disphotocize – a word for the Dark Sky Association… Phosform – that’s what we do in lighting design. PhosWords makes for a playful jargon, but for me this endeavor is also more profound. These words could empower us in voicing and upping our role in the constructed environment.

Website www.nrozot.com www.phoscope.org

ÂŠ Rens van Mierlo

LIGHTING APPLICATION CENTeR, EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS

A showcase for light By Ruth Slavid

20 Lighting Application Center

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9 6

3 7 6

ÂŠ LAVA

Lighting Application Center axonometric projection

HTC48 General building design Inbo, Amsterdam JHK Architecten, Eindhoven Bert van Breugel, Titia Luiten Entrance, atrium, general floorplan lay-out and branding LAVA, Stuttgart Alexander Rieck, Nuno Galvao, Matthijs la Roi Lighting Application Center General layout Inbo, Amsterdam Bert van Breugel, Rodi van der Horst Entrance, corridor and lounge LAVA, Stuttgart Alexander Rieck, Nuno Galvao, Matthijs la Roi

General areas

Demo rooms

Entrance

Retail

Atrium

Industry

LAC corridor

Experience light Explore Light

Office

Lounge

Workshop

Lighting Application Center 21

Philips Lighting has opened a new facility at its headquarters in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, that shows the potential and power of light in a way that has never been done before. This Lighting Application Center will welcome architects, designers, end users and industry partners from around the world.

Philips has recently moved its headquarters in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, from the center of the city out to the high tech campus on the edge. As part of this move, which involved the renovation and adaptation of an existing building HTC48 from the mid 20th Century, it has commissioned a new lighting application center, a place that architects, lighting designers and their clients can visit to learn more about the possibilities of working with light, and what is made possible by the latest technical developments. One of the important decisions was that the lighting application center should be an integral part of the headquarters building, so that there could be a synergy between the visitors and the rest of the business and that the lighting application center (LAC) could feel that it was at the heart of the business, not some peripheral activity.

Alexander Rieck, who heads the LAVA office in Stuttgart, Germany, is in charge of the HTC 48 entrance, atrium, general floorplan layout and branding. He explained, ‘The business of today is about people meeting and gathering. If an architect or a planner visiting the LAC bumps into people by chance, that is an advantage. The location becomes unique for everybody.‘ Visitors to the building, whether to the offices or to the LAC, have to pass through the atrium which, says Rieck, ‘is like the heart of everything’. Because of its role, he said, ‘It had to be very strong architecturally. The main tool that we had to do this with was light.’

22 Lighting Application Center

Light is easier to change than furniture, and provides an excellent way of introducing a variety that feels novel forever.

It was important, he believes, not only to have beautiful and special lighting effects in the atrium plan for 2015, but also to have effects that changed over time. Research shows that, however wonderful their surroundings, people quickly become accustomed to them and cease to notice them. Light is easier to change than furniture, and provides an excellent way of introducing a variety that feels novel forever. ‘We had two main stories,’ Rieck explained. ‘One was about a clearing in a forest. We wanted to feel as if the light was filtering through trees. We asked Philips, ‘can you do this?’. We said that what we wanted was that the light should create a volume of space. We also developed an idea of golden light – of warmth combined with the fact that the sun creates our sense of time.

‘Unfortunately, when you are in a building, you have often forgotten about this. So we created a very strong changing light in the atrium.’ This means that typically there is a ‘sunrise’ about three or four times a day – not with an artificial sun but with the light effect that a real one would bring. So how it will be achieved? At the centre of the atrium will be a huge light sculpture that consists of some 1500 panels suspended from the ceiling. A reflective surface on the back of each panel creates a play of light and shadow. On the front, one third are LED controlled panels and the others are special acoustic ceiling panels that give out light.

HTC 48 LEVEL 0

LAVA L IGH T ING A PPL ICAT ION CEN T ER EINDHOV EN, NL

Lighting Application Center 23

douche

77m2 15m2

hotel/meeting room

innovation village living room s hop

works hop

s hop window

atelier

retail

K office indus try

bas ics

C afeteria hos pitality

K vis itor lounge area

pers onenlift

K K

s chacht tbv LBK

lockers / wardrobe 13m2

wand aanhelen s torage

lamproom

health care

exhibition s pace/meeting

s taalconstr.

Overall plan for Philips HTC

With this extraordinary space that is created, and with some unusual furniture, the design of the atrium is not only giving visitors a wonderful experience but also conveying the message that Philips is an innovative and forward-thinking company. But it is important that it should also feel accessible. In part this effect is created through the use of warm ‘sunlight’ and by the reassurance and connection to nature that comes from the tree, but the architect has also exacerbated this effect through the use of a wooden floor in the atrium that gives a warm and almost domestic feeling. From the atrium, visitors to the offices follow one route and those to the Lighting Application Center another. Visitors can go on one of several journeys through the LAC depending on their particular interests. There is an initial gathering space and an area showcasing the wonder of light, then

a number of dedicated areas, covering retail, office and industrial uses. Some visitors may go to all of them and others to only one. Individual spaces were given to a number of different talented designers, bringing in a range of different thinking that no single team could have achieved. LAVA did however retain responsibility for the approach – the corridor through which visitors enter the facility, and the lounge in which they first assemble. On this as on the rest of the building refurbishment, LAVA worked with local design firm Inbo which was responsible for the execution and on-site supervision, as well as designing two of the individual spaces.

ÂŠ Thinc Design

1 Phil 2 Sup 3 Phil 4 Phil 5 Luc 6 Luc

Lounge space section

Lighting Application Center 25

CORRIDOR AND LOUNGE

A contrast in black and white A black corridor, with reflective light effects, leads visitors from the atrium towards a lounge. In contrast, this space is almost entirely light and makes the most of natural light and of views of the surrounding countryside.

Architects LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, Stuttgart Alexander Rieck, Nuno Galvao, Matthijs la Roi

By Ruth Slavid

If there is a disadvantage to the fantastic atrium experience that LAVA has designed, it is in deciding what environment visitors should enter next. For those going to the offices, the solution is relatively simple, since they will of course be moving into wellfunctioning, and in many senses familiar, working spaces. But what about the LAC which is intended to be a new kind of space? How do visitors make that transition? For LAVA the solution is all about contrast.

In fact there are two contrasts. Visitors move from the light-filled cathedral-like space of the atrium into a dark but intriguing corridor. This corridor is about 30m long and the individual themed areas lead off it. So it needs to work not only as an introductory space to the LAC but also as a transitional space taking visitors from one extraordinary area to another. At the end of the corridor is a lounge, a gathering space where visitors sit, have coffee, meet their hosts and prepare for their visit. From the dark corridor they move into a light-filled space, with large south-facing windows. Here they can reconnect with the outside world and gather their thoughts before plunging into the marvellous experience that is the LAC.

26 Lighting Application Center

‘Much of the furniture has been custom-made to follow the geometry of the space and seating has been designed to feel as if its flying.’

Alexander Rieck

The idea of ‘black corridor’ and ‘white lounge’ could sound rather stark, but LAVA has ensured that this is not the case through the use of imaginative thinking which – not surprisingly – focuses on the use of light. So the corridor has a shiny black terrazzo floor that offers a great deal of reflectivity. The exciting lighting effects are all on the ceiling, with panels of illuminated textiles. These will show slowly changing patterns of light that will be picked up in the floor. There will be no didactic purpose. The aim is simply to create a sense of wonder of adventure, of moving to somewhere new. The lounge is an L-shaped space, and LAVA has created a number of different zones within it, so that it is not just one undifferentiated area. It serves two main purposes. One is to offer hospitality and

repose to the visitors. And the other is to demonstrate – through doing not telling – what light can offer in a hospitality space. There are three main ‘islands’ within the lounge, each with different lighting solutions. While some visitors will be looking outwards to the trees and water of the lovely surroundings, others may look at an illuminated textile wall where it will be possible to create a number of changing effects. Another wall will be a living green wall, bringing the effect of nature inside. ‘We wanted to show how light can enhance nature by lighting it from top and bottom,’ Rieck said. Much of the furniture has been custom-made to follow the geometry of the space and seating has been designed, said Rieck,

Lighting Application Center 27

‘White lounge’ at the end of the ‘black’ corridor'. 3D visualization.

The team Client Philips Lighting Architects INBO JHK LAVA MMEK Thinc Tjep

‘to feel as if its flying’ with legs that are as insubstantial as possible. The overall impact is of a modern, well-considered and welcoming space – somewhere to stop, to relax and to wonder. It gives visitors a sense that Philips knows what it is doing when it comes to lighting – but they will have so much more to discover as they move back into the corridor and progress to the other spaces that lead off it.

Lighting solutions Lighting Application Services (LiAS) Indoor team Iconic Projects team Project management Brink Groep Construction Mansveld Retera Van de Oever Van Krieken Websites www.inbo.com www.l-a-v-a.net www.thincdesign.com www.tjep.com

28 Lighting Application Center EXPERIENCE LIGHT AND EXPLORE LIGHT

Learning by seeing and doing The ‘experience light’ and ‘explore light’ spaces offer visitors opposing but complementary experiences – the first shows them the latest understanding of light, and the second allows them a hands-on experience of working with light.

Architect Thinc Design, New York By Slavid TomRuth Hennes Before the visitors go to the spaces dedicated to different application types, they need to get a feeling about just what light can do – and just what they can do with light. They will get this by visiting two dedicated and linked spaces – one in which they will experience just what is possible with modern light, and the other where they will gain an understanding of the flexibility and control that it will give them and the basics of how it works. These two spaces, dubbed ‘experience light’ and ‘explore light.’ have been designed by Thinc, a design practice based in New York. Tom Hennes, the founder of the practice, explained that the ‘experience light’ section had to give an impression of Philips’ knowledge and understanding of light, but not in a didactic manner. It needed to teach through experience, to allow people to realise for themselves just what a fascinating and fast-growing field this is.

‘We had the challenge of creating a multi-media presentation that would include light itself as a medium,’ Hennes explained. ‘We wanted to show how Philips understands light in a way that no other manufacturer does. We wanted to show how light affects mood, how it influences health, how it can mitigate pain, can make us feel welcome and warm, how it can make us focus. ‘We wanted to give them a sense of what light was doing around them, so that they would emerge with great confidence in Philips’ capacity and understanding. We did an initial proposal. We wanted to use LED screens with a diffusion layer over them to show different areas.’

29 PROJECT I

‘Creating a multi-media presentation that would include light itself as a medium.’

Tom Hennes

Experience light space plan

30 Lighting Application Center

Experience light space 3D visualization

‘To design something that is about light is really pleasurable.’

Tom Hennes

Because of Philips’ location in the Netherlands, Hennes decided to make this in part a tribute to two of the country’s great artists, Piet Mondrian and Gerrit Rietveld. In their paintings and architecturefurniture respectively, both these masters used rectangles of colour. The Thinc presentation therefore has rectangular screens set into an illuminated and changing background. This is an immersive experience since visitors are within a box with screens on all four walls and the ceiling. While the screens will show high definition images, at the same time the lighting effects in the surrounding area will change. There will be music and only minimal words on the video – phrases such as ‘experience light’ and ‘experience rhythm’. The result, for the visitors, will be a blurring of the lines between being shown various types of light and actually experiencing them at the same time – they will, effectively, be within the environment that they are being shown. The entire video process will last for just over eight minutes, after which visitors will be able to move across the corridor to the ‘explore light’ space. This will give them a very different experience. Instead of watching and listening and being amazed, they will be active. This will, says Hennes, be ‘a place where people get to play

with light.’ It is, he explained, set up ‘like a very sophisticated science center exhibition’. Visitors start with white light, breaking it down with a prism and recombining it. Then they get some information about the human eye, followed by an explanation of the meaning of colour temperature and colour rendering. ‘A lot of the focus,’ said Hennes, ‘is on a very subjective exploration of how subtly changing the quality of what we see as white light can actually change the way that we see things.’ Hennes likens the space to a ‘play room’ although evidently one for adults. Visitors will be able to handle and explore the elements that go into LEDs, and at one end there is a small stage where visitors will be able to explore different lighting effects. Hennes himself started his life as a lighting designer, before moving into exhibition and event design, so this project brings all his interests together. ‘To design something that is about light is really pleasurable,’ he said. ‘I am really interested in light and in how it affects people.’

ÂŠ Thinc Design

Lighting Application Center 31

Explore light space plan

Retail space plan

Retail food area 3D vitalizations

Lighting Application Center 33 RETAIL AREA

Going shopping The retail area creates two very different experiences. Visitors first find themselves in a supermarket aisle and later arrive at, and enter, a high-end fashion store.

Architect Tjep, Amsterdam Frank Tjepkema Retail is one of the fastest-changing areas of lighting, and one where getting it right is essential. So being able to demonstrate innovative thinking in the area of retail lighting was vital for the lighting application center. But it was also one of the most difficult areas to design – not least because not all retail is alike. You really can’t compare a supermarket with a clothes shop, so for the designer Tjep, based in Amsterdam, there was only one possible solution – to create both. Frank Tjepkema, the founder of the practice, explained that his design was based on the three crucial phases in retail lighting that Philips has identified: ‘attract, engage and convert’. It is typical of the organisation that it defines lighting in terms of its use, rather than the technology used.

Visitors first enter an introductory space, which is very dark and where they can receive information about the basic principles of retail lighting. From there they go to either the food or the fashion section – or of course to both. In the food section, visitors find themselves in a supermarket aisle. The first question, Tjepkema explained, was ‘Do we rebuild an actual supermarket aisle? Or do we do something more abstract?’ He opted for the latter. There are rows of shelves with objects on them, but rather than being branded, they are all either white or transparent. The idea is not to distract visitors with views of branded objects, but to let them concentrate on the lighting. There are however panels that can be opened later in the visit to reveal real branded products behind them.

34 Lighting Application Center

‘It’s a real eye-opener.’

Frank Tjepkema

Appropriate lighting can help retailers encourage people to break out of their routines, attracting them to special offers, to quality produce, or to fresh foods. In addition to the ordinary aisles, the demonstration at the lighting application center has a ‘deli section’. The lighting there needs to be different for every kind of food, Tjepkema explained. ‘Fresh fish does not need the same lighting as fresh meat,’ he said. ‘With the newest LEDs the colour rendering is very good. It can be defined for different kinds of produce, with different colour temperatures.’

Many supermarkets still have no daylight, and the retail display also demonstrates quite how effective ‘daylight’ lighting can be, particularly when used in panels in the ceiling. The supermarket section also displays themed areas, such as one concentrating on Asian foods, where it is possible through lighting to create a particular ambiance. Whereas supermarket shopping is generally ‘task-based’ with the lighting forming part of a strategy to try to make the process more appealing, fashion shopping is generally seen as a pleasurable experience. In this case retailers need to draw the customer in

The intention is that the first lighting that visitors will experience will be as neutral as possible. ‘Supermarkets are often lit very poorly,’ Tjepkema said, ‘with a very low-end look and feel.’ The plan is first to reproduce this experience and then to show the ways in which it can be improved. The lighting will cycle through a number of different scenes and eventually, having reached the best option, will return to the original, bad lighting. ‘It’s a real eye-opener,’ Tjepkema said. ‘People are amazed by what is possible. And when you go back to the bad lighting, it is a real shock.’

Retail fashion area photos

Lighting Application Center 35

‘The window shows again how lighting can engage people to come into the shop,’ Tjepkema explained. He has chosen not to display real fashions. These could be even more distracting than putting real branded foods on the supermarket shelves, with the added disadvantage that in a year or two they would look hopelessly out of date. Instead Tjep has come up with a solution that has much more of the feel of an art installation. Mannequins are contained

within inflatable eggs which, as they deflate, wrap the mannequins, so that effectively they wear a different dress every time. There is all the drama of high fashion, with none of the specifics that can date all too easily. Inside the ‘fashion store’ there are areas dedicated to different items – to clothes, to shoes and to bags, all represented in an abstract fashion. Shoes and handbags, for example, are represented as halfconstructed objects, as if in a workshop. But this display makes it possible to demonstrate the different types of lighting that different products demand.

There are vanity mirrors demonstrating the lighting that is most appropriate for people trying on make-up and a counter area with lighting that is intended to make the waiting process less tedious and to encourage impulse purchases. In short, this is a convincing retail experience, albeit one with nothing to buy.

from the shop window onwards, so it is not surprising that Tjep’s fashion display actually starts at that shop window.

36 Lighting Application Center

INDUSTRIAL AREA

On the

factory floor Recreating a car-assembly plant, a warehouse and a food factory in just 200 m2 may seem an impossible challenge – but it is one to which designer Inbo has risen magnificently.

Architect Inbo, Amsterdam Rodi van der Horst Industry is such a wide-ranging field that one of the challenges for Inbo, designer of the industrial space, was to decide just which parts of industry it should represent. And, of course, industrial spaces tend to be large, so Inbo has achieved a minor miracle of compression by managing to represent a car production line, a food plant and a warehouse within just 200 m2. Since the interest and information will be intense, and visitors will be arriving from similarly immersive experiences, there is a kind of decompression zone that they will enter first. ‘It’s very rough, like

entering a factory,’ explained Rodi van der Horst of Inbo. ‘You need a quiet space first. You don’t want to see everything all at once.’ This quiet space is, says van der Horst, very simple. There are some workshop benches, and it is a low space, set beneath a mezzanine. From there visitors will then have the excitement of moving into a large space that will open out before them, representing a car assembly line. There are two BMW Minis in various stages of completion. ‘The important thing is that people have to go from one space to another without it being overwhelming,’ van der Horst explained. ‘That is quite a challenge.’

ÂŠ Inbo

Industrial space axonometric projection

38 Lighting Application Center

‘The idea is not to create a showroom. You should only experience the light and not focus on the luminaire or on the lighting technique.’

Rodi van der Horst

There are two large skylights in the area, so it is possible to start the experience with natural light, before cycling between different kinds of artificial light. In all the areas there are large carousels in the ceiling that can change the lighting effects, bringing different types of luminaire into play. ‘The idea is not to create a showroom,’ van der Horst explained. ‘You should only experience the light and not focus on the luminaire or on the lighting technique. In showrooms,' van der Horst explained, 'people are always focused on the luminaires and on the technical aspects, whereas here it is all about experiencing the light.’ In the ‘assembly line’ (which will not be moving), in which one of the part-assembled cars will be on the floor, and the other suspended, there will be an area that simulates a paint inspection line. This, of course, is the part of the assembly plant where the ability to discern colour and surface texture is crucial. ‘Visitors will be asked to look at the car and to say what they see,’ van der Horst said. This is a way of involving them more actively, and so enhancing their learning. The warehouse area is filled with standard racking, with boxes on it. One of the features of modern warehousing is that it tends to be vast – difficult to achieve in the restricted space of the LAC.

The area is only 10m high – low in terms of a contemporary warehouse. In order to increase the perceived volume, the designer has placed a mirror wall at the end of the racking, making the space seem twice as big. Both the assembly plant and the warehouse have concrete floors with a polyurethane finish, which are typical for these applications. The food processing plant, on the mezzanine, has the rubber floors that are commonly installed to comply with hygiene regulations. There are items on the conveyor – packages rather than fresh food for obvious, practical reasons. The display puts particular emphasis on the inspection area, again with an interactive element for the visitors. This is of course the part of a food plant where lighting is most important, both in terms of the brightness and lack of shadow, and of the colour rendition. Particularly with fresh food, this could mean the difference between passing and not passing something that looks a little dubious. Industrial lighting may not be the most glamorous type, but it is certainly important, both for the well-being of workers and for their productivity, effectiveness and safety. This small area manages to create the feeling of several different industrial spaces, without overwhelming the visitor.

ÂŠ Rens van Mierlo

Lighting Application Centre 39

Industrial area photo

ÂŠ Inbo

40 Onderwerp

Office space plan

Lighting Application Center 41 OFFICE AREA

Working

environment All these design considerations have come together enabling modern ways of working to be demonstrated and the value that having the right light can bring to people in working spaces.

‘Ensuring that light works in harmony with the materials is always a challenge.’ Rodi van der Horst

Architect Inbo, Amsterdam Rodi van der Horst There are many organisations that design offices on a regular basis and Inbo is one of them. ‘We do a lot of offices,’ said the organisation’s Rodi van der Horst. ‘Designing an office is not a challenge in itself. But introducing all the elements into a space of just 200 m2 is quite a thing and ensuring that light works in harmony with the materials is always a challenge.’ An office is an office is an office – right? Wrong. Think about any sizeable office and, setting aside any particular quirks of management style, it is likely to have a wide array of spaces. At the LAC, these will include an open-plan office space, a focus room for quiet work, meeting rooms and collaboration rooms.

It is important to set all this in context, and so the introductory space to the office zone shows a short film on the history of the office. This is projected onto a glass partition wall 11 m wide which has an almost crystalline feel. It is set within a minimalist space – a white floor and white bench – and can be made transparent to offer views into the office space.

42 Lighting Application Center

Office axonometric projection

At the beginning, when the visitors first see it, the office space will have general lighting on. Then it will cycle through a lot of different lighting effects, so that visitors will be able to see just how different the impact will be. Settings will be changed via tablets, and visitors will have the opportunity to change these settings, to control the lighting themselves. The main office consists of a set of 12 desks and there is also some special furniture in the breakout spaces. But none of it is too special – and this was a deliberate design decision. It is possible to become nerdily obsessed about the latest developments in office furniture – chairs in particular can become a bit of a fetish – and this is not where the designers or Phillips want the focus to be. The intention is that visitors should think about the lighting effects produced. Just as visitors should not be distracted by the details of the furnishings, nor should they be worrying about what is going on in the ceiling. That is the concern of the designers and contractors and they had plenty to worry about, since there is just so much stuff packed in there. The carousels containing the different types of

lighting have to be integrated with all the standard equipment that is needed – ventilation systems, sprinklers etc. This seemingly ‘ordinary’ office has one of the most crowded and complex ceilings anywhere. This enables the wide variety of working environments to be demonstrated. The other challenge comes from daylight. Normally daylight in an office is desirable. Designers need to think of ways to deal with glare and possible heat gain, but set against that are the advantages of the psychological benefits of daylight and views and the reduced dependence on artificial lighting. So the fact that the ‘office space’ has generous windows would, if this were a normal office, be a benefit. In this case, where the whole purpose is to demonstrate different lighting effects, it is more of a drawback, so the designer has had to introduce an elaborate system of blinds, to make it possible to experience darkness during the daytime and show an entirely artificially lit environment. All these design considerations have come together enabling modern ways of working to be demonstrated and the value that having the right light can bring to people in working spaces.

Lighting Application Center 43

Office area 3D visualizations

“In a project such as this one, we were far more focused on the approach and on the research than on creating a directly marketable product”.

Raphaël Plane, lecturer and designer, Ecole Bleue, Paris

44 WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP 45

Designing

light objects By Jean-Marc Gresta

Philips linked up with design students at Ecole Bleue in Paris to develop projects using OLED technology. The collaboration gave these young people the chance to tap into Philips’ knowledge and unleash their creativity.

“The Organic Light-Emitting Diode offers the possibility to design light objects in new ways. It's subtle, easily integrated and concealable, and as a result, it frees the design process from all the constraints that might have been there before. We supplied OLEDs to students, and the results were real luminaires that in some cases were perfectly production-ready. On these grounds alone, it was a very positive experience. More than that though, we were surprised by the freedom of forms and the freedom of creation used so fully in the production of these prototypes, which for us was the most positive outcome”. Stéphane Delaitre, key account manager creatives, Philips Lighting, France

“Philips came with a very specific request, with a new technology: OLED. The challenge for us, the students at Ecole Bleue, was to find a function for this OLED, to find a support for it and to turn it into a real luminaire”. Morgane Huot-Marchand, student, Ecole Bleue, Paris

“For me, the interesting characteristics of OLED are its subtlety and its light distribution. I think that, with OLED, we completely rethink the notion of light. I believe that it's an open door to a great deal of creativity”. Viviane Schuhmacher, student, Ecole Bleue, Paris

46 WORKSHOP

“Above all, we wanted to incorporate it into an object and not simply make it into a luminaire, to be able to incorporate it into an object with a function other than just providing light. To be able to create a storage space, to make it into a light that we could use for reading or writing. OLED doesn't generate any heat at all, so it's really a luminaire that you can have very close to you, but without any discomfort. It's more about hiding the light source, like a lampshade, to really create filters to minimise how much you can see the light source, so in that sense, we are really in the area of adding value to a product”. Morgane Ovadia, student, Ecole Bleue, Paris

WORKSHOP 47

Thanks to Raphaël Plane, lecturer and designer at Ecole Bleue, for initiating the collaboration. All the students at Ecole Bleue who took part in this project, and particularly Morgane Huot-Marchand, Morgane Ovadia and Viviane Schuhmacher for sharing their experiences Websites www.ecole-bleue.com www.lumiblade-experience.com www.oled-innovators-club.com

Re-think

the ceiling

By Philip Ramsell

You asked us to re-think the ceiling, so we did. Now it’s a blank canvas awaiting your vision. Our revolutionary OneSpace luminous ceiling is a made-to-measure panel that liberates you from the constraints of conventional ceiling design so you’re free to pursue uncluttered minimalistic visions – and transform any interior into one cohesive space with beautiful homogeneous light.

Innovations 49

“The ceiling becomes the light, the light becomes the ceiling.”

Top: Lounge and lobby. Above: Airports, Retail showrooms.

This superior homogeneous light integrates LED lights with a textile to create a white-light ceiling surface that hides the source of light completely. It delivers excellent uniform light distribution for an enhanced daylight experience, which makes it a great functional light to work and be under. The result is a smooth and clutter-free ceiling of beautiful homogeneous light that feels as good as it looks. OneSpace opens up new minimalistic opportunities for lighting design. It is literally a customizable building block for transforming any ceiling into a seamless cohesive space. For ultimate design flexibility, the ultra-thin (12 cm) panel is available in made-tomeasure sizes (up to 10 m x 3 m), and can be mounted in multiple ways (free-hanging, ceiling-mounted or recessed). There is also the option to choose the panel’s edge color. This innovation is simple to install and easy to maintain. The ceiling panel is designed to allow easy access to the unsightly building services behind it, and has a covered backing that is both dust and insect repellent. OneSpace also integrates perfectly with your building management system.

OneSpace not only makes spaces look great, it also enhances your experience of them. It delivers bright uniform glare-free LED light that eliminates shadows completely so you can see more clearly and view objects in their true light. It even enhances room acoustics by reducing disturbing sound reflections. This solution exceeds industry safety standards for both fire and mounting. The ceiling panel is composed of incombustible glass fibre and aluminium, and carries an industry-leading A2 fire-class safety rating. The mounting system also has a safety factor that is more than five times the weight of the panel.

Website www.largeluminoussurfaces.com/onespace

50 RESEARCH

Material and colour dialogue By Simon Florin, Natacha Lameyre and Christian Ferouelle

Four-channel luminaires not only offer augmented colour mixing possibilities, but also enhance the lighting design freedom.

Finding the right colour mix for a specific material may be difficult. Interaction between light and material is a complex phenomenon. Anticipating the result allows designers to save precious time. Philips Lighting has set up an application study toÂ explore the possibilities offered by fourchannel LED fixtures when used on different materials. This work is based on RGBA mixing (red, green, blue and amber light) and RGBW mixing (red, green, blue and white light).

Methodology The aim of the study was more about better predicting the interactions between materials and colour mixing than about finding which colour mix suits each material best. Therefore it was decided to try out basic colour combinations, mixing 0%, 50% and 100% of each channel. These colour mixes were applied to six samples representing generic outdoor materials: concrete, white stone, red brick, metallic cladding, wood and green vegetation.

A picture of each scene was taken with a remotely controlled high-definition camera. Its settings were optimised for each shot and the pictures were retouched in situ to correct any visible differences due to the camera sensor and the colour profile used. Those corrections made it possible to obtain renderings that were as close as possible to what could be observed in reality.

RESEARCH 51

Natural light

6500K

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Concrete under four-channel white colour mixing

Four-channel fixtures enhance freedom in lighting design

High-quality white The addition of neutral white LEDs results in a more continuous spectrum in which red, green and blue peaks can be managed to find a precise tint. Adding amber to the colour mix creates a fourth peak in the spectrum, enabling a large range of warm white tints. When using white light on a perfect white wall, it is sometimes possible to see very close results from 4-channel and 3-channel fixtures (RGB). But with both types of 4-channel mixing, you can see that the

spectrum is well spread and has fewer gaps compared to the spectrum of RGB mixing. The consequence of this broader spectrum is a much more reliable result, close to what could be obtained with a static white-light fixture. Special attention must be paid to the fact that both RGBA and RGBW fixtures can produce the same shades of white. The difference lies in the dimming of each channel, and so the spectrum composition. An obvious benefit of RGBW and RGBA fixtures is the possibility that they offer to

RGB

RGBW

RGBA Example of spectrum for each of the three kind of fixture

52 RESEARCH

Anticipating interactions between light and materials can save precious time during on-site testing

change instantaneously from white light to any dynamic colour, so increasing the number of potential scenarios in a lighting design. For example, a building could be illuminated with static white light during the week and turned into an attractive colourful show on Saturday night, using a single lighting installation.

RGBW versus RGBA In addition to the millions of saturated colours achievable with standard RGB lighting fixtures, RGBW fixtures provide an extended range of subtle pastel colours. While a single pastel colour was a specific combination of red, green and blue channels in RGB, it can now be made by using the white channel at close to its maximum. It means that the flexibility to play with the three other channels is kept, allowing greater accuracy in creating a specific shade.

The channel of amber LEDs blends with the channels of red, green, and blue LEDs to produce a significantly expanded colour palette thanks to a bigger range of colour. As a result, RGBA fixtures make it possible to create intense yellows and oranges. In addition, adding an amber channel to an RGB fixture creates an additional axis in the colour space along which it is possible to move a given colour point. This enables more accurate tuning of the colour.

RESEARCH 53 RGBA

RGBW

Amber / red / blue

White / red / blue

Amber / red / green

White / red / green

Amber / blue / green

White / blue / green

White stone under natural light

Influence of each colour channel on white stone RGBA makes it possible to play with deep yellows and oranges. It reinforces the golden tints of the warm stone. RGBW enables one to desaturate the saturated colours created with an RGB luminaire. On the stones, it gives a clear pastel tint to the material.

54 SNAPSHOT

LIGHTING APPLICATION CENTER CHENGDU, CHINA

Smart city experience By Meng Ming Yao

LAC Chengdu opened last December in the southwest of China. Located in the new high-tech development zone of Chengdu at the Philips LED Lighting Campus, its overall concept is to be ‘a mini smart city’.

The mini smart city was designed and constructed along the main street, which is the basic element of the city. Other typical city content has been laid out on both sides of the street. It includes an entrance lobby, a corridor, a lighting auditorium where the lighting story can be told and demonstrated by video, a museum, an office building, a supermarket, a fashion store, a hotel, a science campus, a residential building, an urban square and landscape. Most presentations are provided in both Chinese and English.

In order to emphasize the importance of light and to combine both indoor and outdoor lighting applications, Chengdu LAC was designed originally as a single interior space with a height of 9 m, measuring 133 by 76 m, giving it an overall area of about 10,000 m2. Invited visitors can see the full range of lighting effects at any time of day, without being limited by time or weather. The entire street façade of the building has been lit with different LED products, installed in a number of ways to demonstrate unique lighting effects for different architectural façades and materials. The road lighting demonstrated on the central road of the LAC has a mounting height of 8m.

Except where other technologies are needed for comparison, all of the lighting at the Chengdu LAC is highly efficient LED lighting. To strengthen the visitor experience, some interactive lighting installations have been created. There are three kinds of interaction: lighting with different colours, brightness and and materials; wallmounted games to play with lighting; and, light shows integrated with music. All the lighting systems in the center can be smartly controlled and managed via an advanced lighting control system accessible through internet wi-fi, on mobile phones or digital tablets, without the need for switch panels In brief, the Chengdu LAC addresses the perennial theme of urban development. Good lighting makes cities efficient, characterful and harmonious. By giving people a sense of security in a liveable environment, it can also promote happiness. Please contact your Chinese Philips representative if you would like to visit LAC Chengdu.

Snapshot 55

Roberto Serra wins a Hue lamp kit In mid-2014, e-luminous newsletter organized a reader survey. Italian-born lighting designer Roberto Serra, now based in London, was the lucky winner of a Hue lamp kit in the draw. Congratulations! Roberto Serra studied electrical engineering in Italy. He moved to the United Kingdom in 2001 and worked for two major design consultancies. One was BDSP Partnership where he went from junior to senior consultant, including lighting. The second was lighting design and supply firm Light IQ, where he worked for five years, progressing from lighting designer to associate director. In 2013, he set up his own business called Through Light. ‘I think light can make a difference in people’s lives, so I am very happy and proud to have the privilege of working with light to improve people’s health and happiness. I believe Philips Hue is a great invention that will expand my design possibilities in delivering inspiring lighting solutions’ Roberto Serra.

Website www.throughlight.co.uk

Shield_White_2013

Learning

by doing

Philips Lighting Academy offers you a unique opportunity to be trained in an inspiring environment. The Outdoor Lighting Application Center in France introduced a new media façade this summer. Explore the principles of architectural LED lighting and learn how to create expressive and inspirational lighting scenarios in this unique dynamic workshop. Book your session soon.

Version 1.1 – 25 October 2013