Talk about architectural lighting in detail

1. The purpose of architectural lighting
According to the visual requirements of different buildings and different occasions, the lighting area can obtain good visual effects. And the illumination is reasonable, the color rendering is good, and the brightness distribution is uniform. At the same time, on the basis of making full use of natural light, the best control method is selected to achieve the purpose of energy saving and consumption reduction.

2. Problems in building facade lighting design
(1) Only the brightness of the light is used as the criterion
Building facade lighting is one of the main forms of urban night lighting. Building lighting at night emphasizes an attractive visual effect, which is completely different from that under sunlight during the day. Sometimes in order to achieve this attractive visual effect, some designers will adopt the concept of "the brighter the light, the better". However, this kind of unreasonable night scene lighting will produce a lot of energy consumption and light pollution, so we must think more about and study the power consumption and safety of building facade lighting.
(2) Relying only on lighting technology theory
In the 21st century, many theoretical textbooks on architectural lighting have been published in China, and these theories have provided more theoretical basis for the development of lighting technology. However, the design of building facade lighting is still one-sided only from the perspective of lighting technology or relying on illumination calculations, lamp parameters, and pure research on human vision.
(3) Urban lighting features are not obvious
The architectural lighting effect of a city must reflect the city's individual characteristics. For cities with different regional environments and historical cultures, the design of architectural lighting should focus on their geography, history, culture and other factors, tap into the genes of regional culture, and tightly grasp The image characteristic of a city or lighting object. As we all know, Venice is a city that looks like a brightly lit water sightseeing road. This is because the architectural lighting is equipped with incandescent bulbs spaced 20 meters apart and with a vertical downward illumination of about 6 lux. Most of the light can be projected onto the riverside road. The lights on the walls complement each other well with the lights from the street windows, making people feel very comfortable. Although incandescent lamps have the shortcomings of short life and low luminous rate, their use in cities with small street spaces like Venice has become a successful example. Such urban planning and design also fully demonstrates the unique urban architectural lighting.

3. The lighting character of Chinese/European/modern architecture
Nightscape lighting is both culture and art. Protecting the city's historical, cultural and architectural features is an extremely important design concept in lighting. Therefore, architectural lighting design should reasonably and effectively express the character of the building and add color to the city based on different processing methods of architectural art.
(1) Chinese architectural lighting
1. Roof-focused lighting
An obvious architectural feature of traditional Chinese architecture is its large roof, but after treatment and decoration of curved surfaces and curves, it does not look clumsy. Due to the special roof form of traditional Chinese architecture, the nighttime lighting of the roof must be focused on, so that the charm of the ancient building can be expressed. The form and material of the roof and the brightly painted decorations on the brackets will have a great impact on lighting. If the roof is paved with tiles, small floodlights can be set up at the eaves to cast light upwards, or small floodlights can be set up along the ridge to cast light downwards, which not only shows the structural beauty of traditional sloped roofs, but also reflects the overall appearance of the roof. Curved silhouette. You can also use the method of outlining the roof to depict the unique morphological essence of the roof. Similarly, the ridges and other details of the roof can also be highlighted locally using small fiber optic lamps.
2. Use the house as the main lighting object
Although the roof forms of ancient Chinese buildings are exquisite, we can use a lighting method that does not illuminate the roof and only illuminates the brackets and roofs under the roof in the direction of projecting light. The pursuit of exquisite silhouettes will further highlight the influence of traditional Chinese architectural art. Subtle beauty. There are also some buildings with colonnades that illuminate the inner walls and make the outer components form a silhouette effect, which is also full of the artistic conception of Chinese paintings.
3. Lighting that combines roof and body
Lighting up the sloping roof and at the same time lighting up the columns or walls of the house is also a way to express traditional Chinese architectural lighting. However, when combined lighting is used, it is easy for all parts to be equally illuminated or all parts of the building to be very bright. Therefore, attention should be paid to the light and dark relationship of architectural lighting. Lighting is arranged according to the column positions of the main, secondary, and minor bays of the building, highlighting the rich relationship between the rhythm of the bay columns and the brackets under the eaves. Lighting measures can be taken to enhance the bright space to make the upper plaque more eye-catching. Floodlights can also be installed on the exterior of the building. The lamps are hidden in the greenery of the surrounding environment, and can even be combined with green lighting.
(2) European architectural lighting
There are still a large number of European-style buildings in cities such as Shanghai and Harbin in my country. We should fully consider the order relationship of the urban environment, and while respecting the building itself, we should also pay attention to the overall image of the building. Arrange the lights according to the recurring columns in the facade shape of European-style buildings. Use "three horizontally, three vertically, and five" to organize the lights, so that the lights can also form multiple segments to illuminate the building and reasonably control the attenuation of the lights, which can highlight the central columns, The complex and rich light and shadow relationship of balconies, windows and other components. In the European-style buildings we see, such as sunset columns and bases, underground lights with asymmetric light distribution can be used to cast light according to their positions. At the same time, we can also try to use a single light color for lighting design.
(3) Modern architectural lighting
For modern architecture, it is mainly based on the individual characteristics of the building, emphasizing the block surface and volume of the building, and making full use of the inherent decoration of the building to create changes in light and shadow. Commonly used methods for building facade lighting include the following:
1. Floodlighting
It refers to a lighting method that installs floodlights outside a building and directly illuminates the building's facade with the light source to make the brightness higher than the brightness of the surrounding environment. It reshapes and decorates the image of the building at night. This lighting method belongs to The basic form of building facade lighting. This lighting effect not only highlights the image of the building, but also effectively expresses the building's shape, three-dimensionality, material texture and decorative details. The light sources used for lighting include tungsten halogen lamps, metal halide lamps, and high-pressure sodium lamps, and the lamps used are special type floodlights. Flood lighting should adjust the illumination or brightness of the illuminated building facade surface to make the building's hierarchy clear and three-dimensional and highlight key parts, avoiding evenly illuminating the entire building. Flood lighting should choose a reasonable direction and angle of light projection to avoid vertical light projection on the illuminated surface, resulting in a weak three-dimensional sense of building lighting. The installation of lighting equipment should be hidden as much as possible so that the light can be seen but not the lamp. For example, many buildings such as Nanjing Road Commercial Street in Shanghai use floodlighting for night lighting, but in comparison, residential buildings, hospital inpatient departments and glass curtain wall buildings are not suitable for this lighting method.
2. Contour lighting
Contour lighting uses the dark night sky as the background and places the light source along the illuminated building shape and decorative details to outline the outline of the building. It often uses string lights, neon lights, melon lights, light guides, whole-body fiber optic lights, linear lighting and other equipment for lighting.
3. Internal light transmission lighting
Internal light lighting is to install the light source inside the building and emit light outward through the glass. Common design methods include indoor light reflection, light strip bracket lighting and direct external lighting. The biggest feature of the design method of translucent lighting in buildings is that it can achieve the effect of facade landscape lighting while using indoor illuminators to save costs and facilitate maintenance. Internally transmitted lighting is often used in commercial or entertainment and other service buildings, especially for glass curtain wall structures. This lighting method is most suitable. However, due to the light absorption and light transmittance of glass, if external lighting is used, it will not only fail to illuminate the building but will also cause a lot of light pollution. Moreover, the structure is hollow, so even if thousands of watts of floodlights are used, it is difficult to illuminate the upper part of the tower. Later, after research, the internal light-transmitting lighting method was used. Internal light-transmitting lighting lamps were installed at different heights inside the tower, so that the tower can be illuminated from bottom to top, forming a magnificent lighting effect, which became a symbol of Paris, France. Landmark building.

4. Design principles for building facade lighting design
(1) Comply with aesthetic laws
An excellent painting must first conform to the laws of aesthetics. Similarly, an excellent outdoor architectural lighting work must also conform to the laws of aesthetics. The aesthetic method of buildings is to express the geometric beauty, layering and three-dimensionality of the building based on the regular combination of points, lines and surfaces illuminated by light, light and dark, movement and stillness. For example, points: when the optical fiber luminous points are evenly arranged on the curved or spherical surface of the building, the brightness and density of the luminous points will be different from different angles, forming a three-dimensional sense of the building surface; line: the outline of the building When the shape is rich, linear lighting can be used to outline the expression; surface: the straight part of the building surface is illuminated by narrow, medium and wide beam floodlights. At the same time, it is also necessary to reduce the difference in brightness or color between the building and the surrounding environment, and to reflect the harmonious beauty with the surrounding lights. Through the use of elements in these three plane compositions, the lighting effect of the entire building is integrated. Sometimes the lighting facilities around the building will have adverse effects on pedestrians and the surrounding environment. Aesthetic principles can be applied to the design of lighting fixtures and the lighting fixtures can be designed into elegant shapes. At the same time, on the premise of avoiding affecting the normal growth of the plant and making it easy to maintain and manage, it is hidden in the branches and leaves of the big tree, so that it can become a beautiful small landscape during the day and night. For example, a column lamp with a 600 mm diameter spherical transparent lampshade is installed on the Sydney coast, with a built-in polycarbonate reflector that can reflect light to the ground. The extremely transparent lampshade makes it almost invisible during the day. Only in the morning and evening when the sun hangs in the sky, the golden color will appear on the lampshade.
(2) Reduce glare interference and reflect humane care
In order to reflect the dimmed lighting and decorative effect of modern society, a large amount of lights are used in the artistic treatment of night scene lighting in many buildings. However, due to the installation position, height and projection direction of the lamps, glare may be formed, which affects people's normal night rest and also increases social safety risks. Therefore, it is necessary to debug the lamp position, projection angle, and projection direction of the lamp. This kind of debugging generally adopts the method of projecting light from bottom to top and from outside to the building. The purpose of projecting light from bottom to top is to scatter the impact of glare in the air and reduce the impact of glare on street pedestrians and vehicles. When projecting light into a building from the outside, the boundaries of the building must be shaded so as not to affect the lighting of surrounding buildings. Therefore, the layout should be considered comprehensively when designing the plan and appropriate measures should be taken to avoid it. We walk in a safe light environment society, which reflects the interaction between people and light, both physically and psychologically.
(3) Energy-saving and environmentally friendly design principles
Many building facades mostly use high-power, high-brightness lighting, resulting in excessive power consumption. Therefore, energy conservation issues must be considered when designing lighting inside a building, and high-quality energy-saving light sources, lamps and equipment with long lifespan and high luminous efficiency should be used as much as possible, such as LED, optical fiber and solar photoelectric lighting. As the economic level of various places continues to improve, the proportion of places using LED light sources will gradually increase. First of all, LED light sources have the advantage of being compact and easier to hide in building components. Secondly, the LED light source has a relatively long life, ensuring that the lamps can be maintenance-free for a long time. In addition, LED also has the advantage of low power consumption. The use of LED light sources is not only to replace traditional light sources, but also to use its unique characteristics to create its own lighting design and structural solutions. Now, solar photovoltaic technology has also attracted great attention in world lighting. Therefore, battery technology meets the coefficient of resistance to hail, lightning strikes, and weathering, ensuring building safety.

Summary: Nightscape lighting design is to use the most beautiful lighting language to tell the story of the building at night, taking green lighting as the premise to create a night world!