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Architectural Lighting
This section is organised by light source rather than by brand as this is one of the key factors in any choice of fitting. Architectural light fittings are generally the back bone of any lighting scheme: the decorative fittings are the visible finishing touches but generally the overall lighting effects are achieved through the careful choice and placing of architectural fittings. We draw on a huge range of fittings balancing considerations such as colour and type of light, size of fitting, lamp changing considerations, energy efficiency and cost. The information below will give you a flavour of the sort of things that we use:
Cold cathode is a wonderfully versatile lighting source. The lamps themselves look a little like fluorescent lamps, but cold cathode can come in a huge range of colours from wonderfully warm whites to vibrant pinks or blues.
We use a lot of it as a concealed source (eg; in a ceiling coffer) to achieve a soft wash across a ceiling or wall. Being made to measure we can achieve a continuous lighting effect, and unlike fluorescent it can be made curved.
With a very long lamp life (around 45,000 hours) it is largely ‘fit and forget.’
Fluorescent lighting generally has a bad name: people think of compact fluorescent downlights which can give low levels of poor quality light, or of fluorescent battens which thud and flash as they are turned on. If properly used though fluorescent sources can give interesting, impactful and efficient lighting, and if the right fittings are selected the fittings turn on and dim smoothly.
We use fluorescent both as a concealed source (eg; backlighting behind mirrors) or within modern and striking light fittings.
LED technology is hugely dynamic and changing all the time. We use a lot of LEDs for accent lighting or for garden lighting where a little light goes a long way. Most of the LEDs that we use are high quality warm white varieties with good colour rendering so that, for example, light is skimming across an oak floor the colour of the oak is enhanced rather than killed off.
We also use very warm white, almost candle coloured versions for a particularly warm glow, e.g. around the foot of a bath or back lighting shelves. The fitting itself is selected for its size, aesthetics, glare, and effect.
LEDs as a primary light source is still a very expensive and not very flexible option, but the technology is advancing all the time.
Halogen remains a core lamp technology: despite technological developments in other fields nothing else has yet managed to replicate its quality of light and flexibility. There are ways of making it much more efficient though, for example we only use energy saving halogen lamps (where for example a 30w lamp gives you a 50w equivalent output), and dimming lamps through a lighting control system generates an almost equivalent reduction in energy consumption.
Halogen lamps come in a wide variety of types (lamp types and bases, wattages, beam widths etc) and careful specification ensures striking end results.
