February 25, 2005

Lighting designer pans pot lights, promotes artistry

By Frank Lillquist

DCN Correspondent

Vancouver

They were attracted to the light. In droves.

What could have been expected to be an esoteric session on modern illumination techniques turned out to be a major draw at the recent B.C. Construction Show in Vancouver.

The Art of Illumination: Residential Lighting Design, filled a double meeting hall with an audience of — by show of hands — architects, interior designers, lighting designers and electrical contractors.

In the spotlight, so to speak, was Glenn Johnson, an international architectural lighting designer whose creations rival Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous but who notes with a touch of pride that he still holds a C10 electrical contractor’s licence from the State of California.

Johnson avoided the highly technical aspects of lighting, opting instead for a discussion of general principles that help turn illumination into an art form, but he did counsel that the contemporary “tools of the trade” are extremely complex.

The architectural lighting designer today must be “an artist with light and an expert with technology.”

A short history of the illumination industry took the audience from the simple incandescent screw bulb through to the LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology that is replacing even fibre-optic lighting. Along the way, Johnson noted, the recessed can was invented and “as soon as it came out everyone was a lighting designer.”

Estimates are some 350 million of the recessed lights are installed in U.S. homes today, something that not only disturbs the artistic sensibilities of practitioners like Johnson, but has incurred the wrath of environmentalists.

As well as using a lot of electricity with their 65 to 250 watt bulbs, the devices were seldom made airtight when they pierced the building envelope and allow a lot of heat loss.

Sixty per cent of U.S. states are requiring recessed lighting to be fitted airtight.

Johnson dislikes the ubiquitous devices because he strives to keep lighting apertures in the ceiling to a minimum. To not do so, he says is offensive to the architect. “Really, the philosophy should be that if you enter a room and notice the lighting, somebody has made a mistake,” Johnson said.

This might seem contradictory considering the magnificent chandeliers and other fixtures that festoon high-dollar residences and lobbies but Johnson says these are actually part of the interior decorating, not the architectural lighting.

Johnson also said that electrical contractors should not be expected to do the work of an architectural designer just for the price of a competitive bid. Electrical contractors also deserve a full set of plans that can be clearly followed.

The electronic evolution of households is another factor making the illumination industry more complex as it entwines with sound and computer systems and automated devices.

This is a trend Johnson approves of, although he recommends an electrical engineer be employed for any home more than 8,000 square feet today.

“What we need to do today with our homes is at least catch up with the technology available in our cars,” he said, noting the sound systems, HVAC and computerized, power assisted devices available in modern automobiles.

Frank Lillquist is editor of B.C.’s Journal of Commerce

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