Light Sketch 3: Material Observation

Light Sketch 2: Museum, Retail, Resturant

 Museum Space- Lighting within this space was track lighting and spot lighting.  This type of lighting is used within this space to draw people to exhibits and displays.  The track lighting light up a defined path in which people are to walk and view.  The spot lighting helps to draw attention to the exhibits and really visually enhance your experience when viewing.

Retail Space- The lighting used within this space are fluorescent lighting on the ceiling tiles and also track lighting throughout the space.  Also, daylight floods into the space.  The track lighting helps to put emphasis on items and displays.  The fluorescent lighting helps to brighten up the space while the windows on the front of the store allow for warm daylight to flood in.

Restaurant Space- This restaurant has large open windows where tables are seated with track lighting above.  This restaurant is located downtown Greensboro so the large windows during the day creates an environment and connect the customer with downtown.  Also, at night the track lighting gives a more intimate feel.  The lights are positioned to bounce of the walls and give the tables a dimmer setting. The night and day experience within this space is very different.

Light Sketch 1: Daylight Observation

9/9 11:30 am

9/16 11:30am

9/23 11:30am

All Day observation

9/30 9:30am

9/30 11:30am

9/30 2:30am

9/30 5:30am

Observation Summary:

This window opens up to my living room and faces the South which allows for daylight to flood through the space during the day time.  Early in September the sun was still higher in the sky because the autumn equinox had not occurred.  During the earlier days of this sketch series you can see that the light floods into the space, lighting the floor and couch and casting shadows from objects.  The shadows are longer and larger.  As you flash through my sketches you can see in the days getting later into September there is less light illuminating the floor and more shadows throughout the space.  Light now does not stretch across the space but is more direct and bright in areas closer to the window.  Shadows become smaller and more direct behind objects (such as the lamp on the side table).  On 9/30 I sketched the whole day varying around 2 hr intervals.  This day you can see that when the light was the lowest in the mornings and afternoon more light flooded into the place. Shadows were cast further away from the window.  When midday approached shadows became stretched but as the sun went down the shadows were smaller. The space is brighter in the afternoons than in the mornings and I think this is because the angle in which the sun hits the window as it goes down. 

Scavanger Hunt: Illuminance, Reflectance, and Transmittance

Luminance

0-10 fc: (8.8) sink area of third floor studio space

 10-20 fc: (11.7) 4th year studio space on fourth floor

20-30 fc: (20.6) pin up space in 3rd year studio space on 3rd floor

30-40 fc: (36.2) computer lab

 40-50 fc: (48.4) room 204

50-60 fc: (52.2) crit room on fourth floor

60-100 fc: (78.1) window sill of my studio desk

>100 fc: (163.8) under desk lamp at my studio desk

Reflectance

 0-20%: (1.4/31.4=4%) monitor cover in room 204

20-40%: (9/30.2=30%) room 204 desks

40-60%: (11.4/19.7=58%) metal window frame in room 204

60-80%: (11.8/18.2=65%) room 204 white board

80-100%: (19/20.2=94%) bathroom mirror

Transmittance

0-20%: (0.3/242) shades in room 204

20-40%: (12.7/44.5=28.5%) sketchbook paper

40-60%: (13.2/31.2=42%) monitor cover in 204

60-80%: (540/710=76%) light box surface

80-100%: (23/24.9=92%) window in room 204 door

Light Revealing Experience

Kelsey Walker  

Lighting Paper 1

Light Revealing Experiences

One usually doesn’t take into consideration how much light affects our lives, I know I don’t.  We all need light to live but this article really made me think about how much light affects me psychologically as a person and how much I relate to light based off of my culture and experiences.  As the article stated, it is different living in such an industrialized country and fully understand or appreciate light because if we don’t receive it naturally within a building it is given to us in abundance through electrical lighting.  With reading,  I started to think about ways that I do find myself influences with light within spaces.  I know that as the long days of summer come to an end and the short dark days approach I am affected emotionally and psychologically.  I find myself feeling less productive due to my biological clock relating dark to sleep.  I strive then to be in buildings that are more lit with electricity and start to appreciate light more and more.  Also, with the shorter days comes a change in our lifestyles as people.  During the winter months I scramble to do everything  I can outside while it is still light and then having a longer relaxing afternoon indoors under electric lighting.  I become more reserved,  looking for ways to stay in under  warm lights for the colder days and this is where relationships between thermal conditions within buildings and lights come into play.  

We as people adapt our lives to light and I think it was interesting to see it from the perspective that the article put it in of the sunrise and sunset and the rituals of gathering to see the beauty of the play on brilliance of these events.  I also take into consideration the influence of water within these settings too.  As the article spoke, water is used as a reflecting agent of light to bring to life many buildings.  “Reflections in water put the sky at our feet.”  This quote from the article takes the words out of my mouth when I look out over the ocean at the sunrise or the night moon reflecting out over the water.  It helps not only light the sky but also light the ground and allows for light to dance at our feet.  This can be very aesthetically pleasing within a building depending on the usage of that building. 

The relationship between light and task is something that I could really reference myself to because of my previous work environment and design projects that I have worked on in the past.  Work wise, I work in the Forney building located on College Ave.  In the room in which I work there are huge windows that reach to the ceiling halfway down the walls in which the service desk I am behind directly faces.   It is pleasant during the day when the sun in high in the sky because enough light comes through that there is little need for the distasteful florescent lights above.  As the day comes to an end and the sun begins to beam in, hitting me directly in the eye.  An easy fix to this problem would be finding a way to diffuse the light in the afternoon by blinds or curtains. 

Light within a space really depends on the need within that building and also the user of the building.  This was something I really had to take into consideration when working with the Industries of the Blind Project second year.   Through research of the space I learned that there are all different kinds of blindness and to each case light affects the people differently. 

The Impact of Light on Health

Kelsey Walker  

Light Paper 1

Impact of Light on Health

I found these articles contradicting upon themselves in the fact that modern LED/blue lighting is both harmful and helpful.  In the modern world we live in, we strive off of electrical lighting.  It is difficult as a designer, to read articles such as this and try to think of ways that can prevent the harmful side-effects and also enhance the positive effects.  As the articles read, our body runs of our biological clocks or our circadian and circannual cycles.  Natural light works on this cycle of night and day giving us a friendly reminder that we need sleep to properly function.  Electric lighting works against this natural cycle keeping us alert and awake.  Is this harmful?  In some situations, the articles say yes and in some the articles say that moderate exposer to electric lighting can be helpful and make us more coherent.  This is where the difference of the lighting comes into play. Modern LED lights give off a blue wavelength color which is actually more harmful to our physiological health.  Geez, can we ever win!  It is hard to really work with health and deal with the light and task of within a building.  Light is needed for survival so, how do we begin to address these issues as designers?  The idea of natural dimming lights that NASA has experimented with is an interesting concept and I think could be a lead to a solution in this issue.  But as we see in these articles, with new technology that influences our natural biology come side-effects.