The Lighting Control Innovation Award was created in 2011 as part of the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Illumination Awards program, which recognizes professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design. LCA is proud to sponsor the Lighting Control Innovation Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify the effective use of lighting controls.
This month, we explore a wireless, color-precise, and lifestyle-enhancing lighting control solution installed at a private residence in San Francisco. Lighting control design by Electrolight. Photography by Douglas Friedman, Claudio Ramos, and Lu-Yu Huang.
The lighting controls for the Buena Vista Residence has several dimensions, allowing the lighting designers to properly manipulate the light quality and fulfill the homeowner’s expectations. There are two sets of warm-dimming profiles. One profile is 2200K to 5000K for rooms with rich daylight to use during the daytime. The other warm dimming profile is 1600K to 2700K for use after twilight.
Both dimming curves are timed with an astronomic clock, and the intensity and fading time are precisely tuned based on the client’s expectations. There is also a secret menu to turn the lighting into saturated colors for use during events at home.
The lighting designers also played with different vibrancy settings in a few rooms with unorthodox color finishes, such as the lacquered deep blue in the Dining Room and the intense red in the Husband’s Office. Some colors were complex for the ordinary LED to represent the saturation correctly, and the quality of the color would be compromised without tweaking the vibrancy settings.
The total of more than 50 decorative fixtures also required the lighting team to help the manufacturer/ artist to source quality LED drivers and LED lamps. In addition, the lighting team fine-tuned the dimming range and the low-end cut-off of each decorative fixture during commissioning, to eliminate unwanted flickering.
Based on the fact that the lighting systems needed to control numerous variables, additional runs of low-voltage wiring would be required. Unfortunately, in this colonial-revival house built in 1897, there was limited space for conduits. In collaboration with the electrical team, the lighting team designed the entire lighting control system to be wireless. Reducing construction materials and future waste.
Two specific dimming curves are timed with an astronomic clock, and the intensity and fading time are precisely tuned, based on the client’s expectations.
The lighting designers also played with different vibrancy-settings in a few rooms with unorthodox color finishes, such as the lacquered deep blue at the Dining Room.
A notorious artwork serves a decorative pendant, and recessed fixtures with different vibrancy settings, properly render the emerald table in the lacquered deep-blue Dining-Room.
Controls at Husband’s Office is programmed with five standard scenes: Entertaining, Music listening, Office Work, Meeting and Video-Conferences.
Stairwell linear-lighting is included in the main HOME (arrival) scene at 50%, and at late-night scene at 5% for a comfortable circulation at night.
Closets are programmed under conditional logic. During the day the main scene starts at 75%. During late-night/early morning lighting, intensity starts at 15%.
The lighting control has several dimensions, allowing the lighting designers to properly manipulate the light quality, and fulfill the homeowner’s expectations.
Black-light was specially used in the wife’s closet, and programmed to create a “hallucinatory” effect on the stenciled ceiling.
Controls at Home Theater is programmed with five standard scenes: Entertaining, Music listening, Pre-function, Movie Watching and Cleaning.
The wife’s closet has a secret rainbow scene which is part of the secret menu, in addition to the black light scene. All by request.
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