What the word architectural is doing here
It is worth asking what the word adds. Outlining a building follows its perimeter. Architectural lighting answers to the shape underneath. One treats the house as a shape. The other treats it as a building with peaks,
https://evercrestlighting.com/permanent-lighting/ recesses, columns and texture.None of that means you need to know the terms. The useful test is whether the design explains itself. If the answer describes your building, you are talking to a designer. If it is about the hardware, you are being sold a package.
The parts that do the work
Every building hands the designer a set of features. Peaks, columns, dormers, a masonry section, a covered entry. Those are the anchors, and everything else is there to hold them together.
Why even light is the wrong goal
The instinct is to add light until nothing is dark. It is the wrong instinct. Depth comes from contrast, and the dark sections carry as much of the design as the bright ones. Light everything evenly and you get a bright wall with no shape.The result looks intentional, and that comes across to people who could not explain a single technique.
Homes and businesses ask for different things
Residential work is mostly about the front elevation and the walk in. For a business, the facade is doing marketing after sunset. A lit facade carries further than a sign does, and it can change with the season.
The permanent system is not only a holiday product
A permanent LED system is architectural lighting that also happens to do holidays. One install, two functions, and the everyday one gets far more hours.
Three ways to point light at a building
There are a few basic approaches. Washing means even light across a surface, which suits smooth siding and large plain faces. Grazing is light run tight across a face so every bit of texture throws a shadow, which is what you do to stone and brick. Uplight is for columns and trunks.
Warm or neutral on different materials
White is not one color, and the choice changes how a material looks. Warm white flatters brick, wood, stucco and warm stone, which is why it is the usual answer. Cooler sharpens a modern facade, and a little goes a long way. Mixing them on one building is what looks wrong.
Getting a design
Architectural lighting starts with somebody looking at the building. Ask why the light goes where it goes, because a real design has an answer. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs architectural lighting for homeowners and businesses in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. Consultations are free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].