Table and floor lamps are the most obvious and simply added luminaires because – in general – they are immediately effective and reasonably inexpensive. Floor lamps are easily sited and often unobtrusive; as such, they represent a useful accessory to ramp up domestic lighting.

Accepting that effective illumination is key to a quality environment, in terms of both aesthetics and function, lighting also enhances the finer points of interior architecture, design and decoration, insofar as it helps to create and engender ambience, and complements specific lifestyle signatures. In order to get it right first time, lighting should be planned from the blue-print stage, as a part of the interior / exterior shell.
Sadly, until recently, in South Africa this was not the case. Lighting was regarded as an afterthought, an add-on at the end of the build programme. The results were obviously detrimental: poor location and quality of light fittings, patched plaster, visible cabling and badly lit interiors.

On lighting being the last consideration, Valerie Poyurs of Radiant Lighting says: ‘Lighting is often regarded as the ‘Cinderella’ of design. The work of designing the building / decorating the space takes precedence and we often don’t explore the vast array of lighting possibilities available. Lighting design is both a specialised and critical aspect; when it works well within a given space, the results speak volumes.
‘Prior to the 1960s, many architects and / or consulting engineers did not consider the concept of illumination in architecture important. Happily, things have changed drastically since those dark days.’

Gizelle Fischer of Intelligent Lighting Centre / Electrosonic adds: The first step is to define the use of the space. The lighting designer can then determine quantity of light, colour quality, brightness, direction and placement.
‘There are two aspects that are key, the qualitative or aesthetic aspect and the quantitative or engineering aspect. The first should ensure that the space has a pleasing ambience; the artistic interspersing of light and shadow, illumination and darkness, figure and form. The quantitative aspect must provide adequate light for the task at hand.’ 
There are three basic types of lighting: ambient lighting, accent / mood lighting and task lighting.

Ambient lighting enables the overall illumination of an interior. These fittings essentially replace daylight and provide the general lighting required after-dark. Ceiling and wall-mounted low-voltage halogen lamps are de rigueur solutions and can be controlled on a dimmer system, although the light then emitted is not as ‘clean’ as the full-power mode. Halogen complements design and decoration because its white light virtually duplicates daylight.

July/August 2010 Issue

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