Improving the ambience with wallwashing
Circulation areas open up the architecture. At the same time, they provide informal meeting points and therefore places for exchanging ideas, opinions and information. The lighting essentially determines the character and quality of these spaces. Vertical lighting is particularly suitable for lending narrow, windowless rooms a bright and deep impression.
Added value of vertical lighting:
- high quality atmosphere due to pleasant contrast conditions
- wide, bright spatial appearance – even in narrow corridors
- visual support for the common identity of individual areas
Rule of thumb for arranging lens wallwashers
For uniform vertical lighting, the distance to the wall (a) of lens wallwashers should be around one third of the room height (h). For good linear uniformity, the luminaire distance (d) of lens wallwashers can be up to 1.3 times the distance to the wall (a).
a = 1/3 x h
d ≤ 1.3 x a
Tip for luminaire selection:
In corridor applications, double wallwashers enable walls opposite each other to be brightened with just a single luminaire thus saving on luminaire and energy costs.
Guiding with linear lighting
Open plan areas can be subdivided into functional areas with specific photometric requirements. For example, circulation routes can be highlighted using horizontal lighting with an oval distribution. This creates lines of light on the floor with wide luminaire spacing guiding through the room and without affecting adjacent areas such as workstations.
Added value of oval flood distribution:
- precise, functional lighting supports sense of security
- simple routing due to perception hierarchies in open plan situations
- efficient lighting solution with wide luminaire spacing and low connected load
Rule of thumb for arranging linear lighting
For linear arrangements and uniform lighting, 1.5 times the height (h) of the luminaire above the working plane can be used as the approximate luminaire distance (d) between two luminaires with oval flood distribution.
d ≤ 1.5 x h
Tip for luminaire selection:
With round recessed luminaires and spotlights with round luminaire heads, oval light distribution can be adjusted through 360° via continuous rotation of the luminaire or lens. Square head luminaires feature alignment in 90° steps.
