Light Series 2

Light Series 2 Assignment:

We have been assigned to visit an art museum, a restaurant, and a retail store.  We are to identify the lighting situation in each based on brightness, glare, type of lighting, patterns in shadow, etc.

The RESTAURANT I visited was the Cheesecake Factory in Charlotte NC.  While visiting I noticed the lighting in the space varies for what it is needed for.  There is drop down lighting over the tables, the bar, and the hostess desk.  There is also recessed lighting everywhere else.  I really have always enjoyed the lighting in this space.  The patterns along the tables and over the bar (made by the actual fixtures and/or reflections and shadows) are very soothing and gentle but enough to provide adequate lighting for the specific area. The lighting also keeps the restaurant unified with all the same glow.   

The ART MUSEUM I visited is called REDUX contemporary art center - it is a museum and a studio.  The illumination of this room I sketched as well as the others in the museum are lighted by track lighting hanging from above.  The actual walls of the museum do not go all the way to the ceiling, and the ceiling is painted black, to the lights hang to the height of the walls.  In this museum there is no glare, the brightness is very sufficient for the artwork.  The exhibit installation is not only artwork but the walls are painted according to the paintings on the wall.  I have no recommendations for glare or the brightness.  I think it was very easy to view all the artwork. 

There were some patterns of light falling on the wall because  track lights cast  round light spot on the wall (bright in the center and grows lighter as you get near the edge). The only problem with this was since the walls were painted as well as the art work the painting on the walls is not illuminated.  The artwork is the only thing illuminated but there are certain paintings within the wall.  I would suggest a more even lighting.

The RETAIL STORE I decided to explore is TRANQUILITIES on Spring Garden St.  This small store is full of stuff (candles, jewelery, home decor, etc).  The lighting bouces from one thing to another.  The main sources of lighting are lamps and small over head recessed lighting.  There are also small lights attached to shelves everywhere in the store, they are used to highlight items.  The store is lit brightly everywhere.  However, there was so much stuff the whole atmostphere was overwhelming and cluttered.  The majority of the light on the shelves were halogen, which was too bright and washed out the items.  I would recommend reducing the strength of the halogen lights or reduce the number of them.  There was also a lot of pattern created by the light themselves.  The bright lights scattered throughout drew your eye from one to the other, but kept you eye away from the items in the store.  The lighting however works because it is the same all throughout the store, and especially works in the jewelry section because the halogen lights up the jewels.  

Light Evaluation: Critique Room

Lighting Evaluation:

As a team, Michael, Lauren, Sarah, and I, are to evaluate one location in the Studio Arts Building.  We decided to take on the Critique Space on the 4th floor. We are to evaluate it using a check list given to us.  Our team description of the space is: "The crit room is primarily used for meetings, critiques, and class.  In the daytime (sunny days) the light is natural and very bright, during cloudy or rainy days there is barely any natural light and the track lights are turned on.  They only cast light on the walls and leave the center of the room darker.  The space is small compared to the rest of the studio spaces, but rather large in general.  It is not intimate because there is no ceiling and whatever is said in the space can be heard in the surrounding studio spaces and vise-versa.  Overall our impression of the space is that it should have been planned out better in terms of lighting and acoustics. The designer should have thought about that the room was going to be used for.  For example when a projector needs to be used on a sunny day, there is no way to shut off the natural light coming in so the screen is very hard to see.   

Here are a couple pictures of the space as well as the evaluation spreadsheet.

Light Series 1 continued

Here is the second picture of the space in my apartment that I will keep photographing all semester.  Today it is a little cloudy so not a lot of light is coming in through the windows.  When I take these pictures I am only going to focus on natural light, I have turned off all the lamps and overhead lights that would affect this area of my apartment.

Light Model 1

We had to create a lighting model, determine a setting for the type of lighting we were going to portray, and present it to the class. We decided to portray a concert.  We also wanted to incorporate how colored lights can be mixed and create a brighter light as well as another color.  We used red and blue and created magenta.  

The inside of our model is made of:

- smooth tin foil to reflect the light

- crinkled tin foil to play with the different colors and create shadows

- two LED flashlights, covered with red or blue

- white walls and floor to bounce light around the box

- black ceiling to enhance the shadows created by the crinkled tin foil

..article...

I found a article titled "Bridges of LIght, Nassauische Sparkasse (NASPA)" in ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.  The article is about a bank in Germany that has a large glass hallway.  In this hallway Thomas Emde installed lighting cubes that change throughout the day and can be seen from all angles.  

After reading this article, the first thing that caught my eye was the lighting fixtures were installed into a bank.  Usually banks are pretty stale and minimal in design.  I also like that there is not only one way to observe the lighting (since it is a hallway with many stories and glass windows).  I also like how the cubes change color throughout the day, but slowly so it will not distract any employees.

Light Series 1

Beginning February 1st 2009, I will keep a record of one space in my apartment.  I will take a picture every two weeks and record what I see.  Over time I will see how the seasons change the lighting in the space, and I will also observe how light changes throughout the day.