Facade lighting, the advantages of using it, and what type of buildings can use it.
In the modern world, we live blindly by big advertising panels and facade lighting.
The facade of a building is considered its most important aspect from a design point of view; it sets the tone of the structure.
Facade lighting is architecturally designed to enhance the overall look of the facade of a building. Somehow it creates a spectacle of lights that can either be seen every night or on some special holidays. More or less, those lightings are used by big brands and companies to show their friendliness and their power.
As an example, the most known ( and expensive ) hotels in the world use this type of lighting to accentuate their specific architectural details. In this way, whenever you talk about a certain place, you’ll remember about that hotel and what was the most impressive thing about it.
Unfortunately, not too many companies or brands are using lighting as a way of entertaining potential customers or engaging them. Most of the business owners consider this is a useless investment and they won’t make more profit just because they put on some lights on the building.
However, the newest business owners on the market consider building illumination as a way of guerilla marketing. Today, the possibilities are infinite. You can create everything you want, even dance moves with lightings on your building.
The advantages
What most people don’t know about this type of lighting is the advantages of using it. Before assuming things about lighting in general, you have to know that most of them are LED lights. So, in this case, here’s the list:
• Low-cost. Facade LED lighting is quite affordable and long-lasting. You won’t need to change the lights too often, even if you keep them open all night long.
• It is eco-friendly. Apart from being affordable, LED lighting consumes significantly lower levels of energy than incandescent bulbs. Also, an incandescent bulb gives up 95% heat and only 5% light, while LED gives up 95% light and only 5% heat. So that’s a big deal.
• Reduced maintenance. This type of lighting requires minimal maintenance procedures ( only if you don’t crush them with a ball ). It is for this reason they are preferred for large scale installations. I guess old business owners will need to consider that for their companies’ buildings.
• Easy control. The lights are connected to controllers and drivers which make it easy to operate all the lighting fixtures. It is also possible to include functions such as color and intensity control.
Of course, there are other two types of this type of lighting:
• Floodlight. This one is mostly used for concrete buildings, where there are a lot of glass parts.
• Accent. This one allows you to select some important parts of the building ( they are not lighting the complete building ).
These are the basic features on the way to consider this type of lighting as a way to bring awareness to what you have.
There are many aspects of using this type of lighting. As we mentioned a little before, it enhances the attractiveness of a place and its cultural value. Sometimes, this lighting may be too bright for the human eye and disturb those on the street. In this case, intelligent solutions are crucial, so you can adjust the brightness, depending on the type of night.
If you own a company that has lightings, people ( your potential customers ) are the ones you need to take care of.
After all this information, you may ask yourself what type of facade you can place lightings.
• On the solid facade. Just like the Georg Schafer Museum.
• On the vertically divided facade. Just like the Brandenburg Gate.
• On the horizontally divided facade. Just like the Hongkong and Bankok Bank.
• On facade with projecting or recessed sections. Just like the Museum of Arts and Crafts from Hamburg.
• On the perforated facade. Just like the Humboldt-University from Berlin.
• On the banded facade. Just like the Stadtwerke ( public utilities ) from Ludenscheid.
• On the transparent facade. Just like the Office building from Basel.
However, outdoor lighting can have its bad parts too.
As an example, if it’s not placed correctly, the lighting can easily lead to non-architecture. That means that your building it becomes either ugly or too conventional like it doesn’t have anything special in it. That’s the time when many companies lose their engagement with customers and so they are one step from giving up.
Keep in mind that lighting is something like a business card for your structure. Some towns have their buildings ( such as skyscrapers or city halls ) to create a friendly environment for both citizens and tourists. In this way, that specific town becomes known for its culture and values, and its economic status raises year after year.
And this is the good case scenario when the facade lighting using in the way they should be.
Facade Lighting – 5 Ways to Create Stunning Lighting Effect
LED Pixel
Facade lighting brings any structure or building of life if you utilize the right lighting techniques. And one stunning lighting effect you can try in your building is the light-emitting diodes (LED) pixel.
LEDs are great incandescent indicators replacements and offer more benefits than conventional lighting sources. They are small but durable and consume less amount of energy. They are popular among the sports and entertainment technology industries.
They have increasingly popular in many industries due to their durability and practicability. So, it’s no surprise that LED pixel technology has also rapidly grown over the past years.
LED pixel refers to an array of LEDs consisting of hundreds to thousands of LEDs connected to the integrated control chip. You have to use digital controllers to control the LED either individually or by group. The controller also enables the LED to create videos, images, and patterns.
LED pixel is considered today’s one of the most advanced lighting technologies, producing multiple magnificent things. It utilizes various applications, such as structural designs. LED displays consist of many LEDs in a single flat panel, creating patterns and videos. You can find thousands of LEDs in one panel that constantly mix three primary colors, blue, green, and red, to produce a wide range of colors.
Many building owners use LED pixel strips as decorative lighting for structural lighting design. The ability to change the colors allows the lighting system to create incredible digital images and patterns.
You can also go for multi-colored LED pixel lights to decorate structures and buildings like stadiums, sports centers, casinos, and high-class hotels. Other perfect structures to place LED pixel lighting systems to include an office tower, bridges, and digital billboards.
Tube LEDs
Tube LEDs are another popular lighting technique offering stunning effects in different structures. It is widely used in outline decoration, particularly for facade illumination. With its brightness and long life, it is more useful compared to conventional strip lights.
You can even customize the light size, length, LED quantity, color, and shell color based on your unique requirements. Tube LEDs offer attractive lighting solutions for facade and architectural lighting. They can turn your building or structure into a real landmark.
The cutting-edge technology used in this facade lighting solution enables you to illuminate various architectural highlights. You can design unique and fascinating light and color effects on exterior facades.
Tube LEDs are commonly seen in art galleries, hotels, museums, and other public and commercial buildings. The shade and light’s smooth interplay helps highlight a structure’s distinctive features. As a result, your building stands out from the rest.
Nowadays, more and more architects and companies rely on LED technologies like tube LEDs for outdoor building applications due to the vast array of applications they offer. They deliver brand new possibilities for facade lighting.
Whether you require a conventional or modern facade design, tube LEDs will help you bring out particular dynamic architectural elements that catch the eyes. This lighting effect delivers extreme color stability and superior efficiency.
With tube LEDs, you can expect durability and energy efficiency, allowing your exterior lighting to operate cost-efficiently and safely all year round, even during the hardest weather conditions.
Tube LEDs let you create attractive shades of white or various color effects for your building’s facade lighting using the right intensity. They easily compliment the exterior of any structure or building.
They effectively highlight your building’s frontal part, whether only a particular design or part or the whole part. They do not only benefit the actual structure itself but also extend to the surroundings.
Changing Color Flood Lights
Facade lighting goes beyond aesthetics. The most obvious reason for using different lighting techniques is to highlight your building’s features, but they do not just give an artistic feel.
Changing color floodlights enable you to do anything with your structure or building. Floodlights are ideal for commercial places that are improperly lit since the fixtures provide uniform illumination.
These broad-beamed lighting fixtures are crucial for areas like open fields, highways, parking lots, construction sites, manufacturing plants, shipyards, etc. However, they are constantly becoming top facade lighting options.
The introduction of LEDs has replaced conventional lighting fixtures. Today’s commercial and residential property owners prefer using exterior LED floodlights. This lighting emits white light, beaming out at broad angles. It comes with a higher lumen per watt and offers multiple benefits for the users.
At first glance, changing color floodlights are quite attractive and become entertaining afterward. You can see white, blue, pink, yellow, etc. They instantly transform your building’s aesthetic appeal from the outside.
Aside from aesthetic benefits, these LED lights are also energy-efficient. They encourage savings and sustainability simultaneously. These floodlights are long-lasting, durable, and strong. They can last up to 10 times longer compared to other gas-based or filament lights.
If you choose the changing color floodlights with LED technology, the operation can last almost 50,000 hours. In return, you do not have to replace bulbs from time to time, which helps reduce the total maintenance costs.
Unlike traditional lighting systems, LED floodlights do not contain toxic elements like glass, lead, mercury, and carbon. This makes them safe for the users and environment. They also limit heat emissions because they can convert and conserve the maximum electricity amount. So, they are a perfect emission if you are after controlled heat emission.
Headline / Title lighting
When developing the overall look of your building, you have to choose unique designs or attractive shapes that can wow the crowd.
This is where facade lighting comes into play. One of the popular lighting techniques you can try for your facade lighting is the headline title. It is primarily at the top of the structure or building.
The top of a building can be illuminated all around it. Some commercial property owners want some squiggles in the design to make a bold, attractive statement.
Headline title lighting does not only focus on the top of the building. You can use this lighting effect to improve the architectural lighting across your building. That way, balconies are seen lit up in one glance.
This lighting effect proves that you can illuminate particular areas without lighting up others. For example, when your hotel guests stay in that specific room and are outside, they effortlessly turn on the lights. The guests feel safe because they can see what is going on.
When placing the headline title at the top of the building, you can reap two benefits. First, people can easily see the top of your building and even read the name with ease. Second, anyone driving through can quickly determine where they are supposed to go.
The headline title also serves as a safety feature in addition to aesthetic decoration. This lighting technique comes with a wide array of color options. In other words, you can pick a particular color that blends with your building or even matches your logo.
With proper headline title lighting, you can provide people with something unique when they glance at your building. Once you set and achieve the right mood for that, drawing people in becomes easier.
Fairy Lights Facade Lighting
Whenever people see something beautiful, a particular emotional response elicits from them. If emotions are present, that moment transforms into something memorable.
Remember that memories are emotion’s recollections during a particular time in the past. Every time you make people feel something by looking at your building’s aesthetic appeal, that’s a huge accomplishment.
One of the best ways to create that memorable, beautiful memory is by using fairy lights on your facade lighting project. Building owners have to realize that fairy lights ate not only intended for holidays, feasts, or family gatherings during December but also serve as permanent decorative lighting for any structure or building.
Fairy lights for facade lighting are safe and straightforward to set up. Installation of traditional lighting options involves extra work; LED or solar-powered fairy lights offer an easy setup. You do not need to use complicated extension cords or outdoor outlets to plug the fixtures, making the installation safe.
Another benefit of using fairy lights in your building is their convenience. They are an ideal all year round facade lighting solution, whether you want them to install for the holiday season or as a permanent exterior decoration.
Fairy lights are not only for aesthetic purposes; they also help people see what is in the environment. These lights offer enough illumination, making everyone feel safer since they can clearly see the surrounding areas and where they are going.
What’s more, this facade lighting solution discourages trespassers or anyone with a bad motive from getting near. As a result, people inside and outside your building gain a particular level of reassurance that their protection and safety are intact.
Fairy lights also enable you to customize the color, pattern, and design. So, you have the freedom which one suits your building best, the mood you want to create, and the aesthetic appeal you wish to make.
Things to consider
What’s the most interesting thing about this type of lighting is that it creates three-dimensional visibility of any structure. But, to accomplish this result, you have to well-place the lights.
You have to take the environment into account when planning the display. There are many things to consider, such as:
• compositional characteristics ( size and structure of a building, texture, and color);
• the role of the object in the architectural composition of the city;
• the distance and direction from which the structure can be seen;
• style buildings, as lighting design, should be combined with the appearance of an architectural object.
• existing coverage areas.
Another thing you can do with this type of lighting is to transform any structure or environment into shape. It’s like your painting on canvas, trying to reach a certain emotion and share it afterward.
On the same subject, you can communicate certain information about your brand, company, and so on. Media content such as animations, text, or even images can be displayed using controllable led pixels on the facade. This type is called communicative facade lighting and it is used to communicate with the environment at night when everything is at peace.
