Light – the Music of Architecture

Collage: Light – the Music of Architecture
2011 @ wobuilt.com

We all know that music touches our emotions. But so does light. Its use can make us feel joy, awe, it can lift our spirits, it can calm us down, it even can inspire us, it can bore us, make us feel safe or threatened or help us feel romantic. Of course there is a functional component to light, it makes us see our environment. Its level of intensity helps us work, play and function.

Lighting design is the art to produce the right light level with the appropriate emotion for the space. It would not be productive for your staff to feel compelled to dancing when entering the office or have audiences fall asleep during a drama performance, but it is important to combine interest and function in each space. Some space might be the equivalent of adagio, others allegro. Every space needs the right amount of drama.

It seems that the majority of noteworthy light comments come from either architects or poets. My personal favorites:

• "Light is the attempt to give dreams to somebody, who doesn't have them."
  Massimiliano Fuksas, Italian architect
  
  
• "If the spaces we create do not move the heart and mind, then they are surely only addressing one part of their function. Any engineer can quantify light by which to read a book, but what about the poetic dimension of natural light: the changing nature of an overcast sky, the discovery of shade, the lightness of a patch of sunlight?"
  Sir Norman Foster, British architect

Lighting design was my first passion in architecture. Without light and its controls there is no architecture, no spaces, no buildings. Bad lighting can destroy spaces. Good lighting enhances them.

I believe lighting design is necessary for all commercial spaces, since in addition to the quality of the light it is also important to control it properly to save energy. But it has also a role in the home. The quality of life can be enhanced greatly by lighting in a new building, addition or renovation.

In all of our projects we offer our expertise as lighting experts to provide quality spaces using both daylight and artificial sources and their controls. Sometimes I feel like a conductor, the orchestra are the light fixtures, the sun and the daylight.

Martina Ernst
CEO
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

Wo-Built's Second Floor Addition Project
"...allowing plenty of daylight to penetrate to the lower level as the staircase has a very open design."
Photo © 2008-2011 Wo-Built Inc.

links:
Wo-Built Inc: Design + Build Construction Company: The Development of Our Addition Project

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