Lighting the way

LIGHTING SOLUTIONS FROM FAGERHULT

To me, lighting means simple illumination. Is there more to it?

Turner: Yes. A lot of research has gone into the impact of lighting on people. While lighting plays a big role in architecture and interior design, we’ve got to remember that the most expensive part of a building, by far, is the men and women who walk in and out everyday. The visual and biological impact of lighting is directly related to our level of well-being.

Lighting strategies work on a couple principles, the first of which is the 1:5:200 ratio. One, whether its dollars or dirhams, signifies the cost of the building; Five, is what the client will spend on it to make sure it functions well; 200 represents the value of the users and employess within.

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So, lighting is about more than just making buildings shiny…

Turner: Lighting isn’t just about making a building look attractive, it’s about making the people who work there feel healthy, happy and productive. Our product DUO [launched in Europe in 2007] was developed on the basis of this premise. 

Your body’s Circadian Rhythm is a chart of the natural fluctuation of your melatonin level at different times throughout the day. DUO is a dynamic system that can be programmed to align lighting levels and intensity with your body’s Circadian Rhythm.     

We see part of our mission as making the architectural community aware of what is available to them. They may not use our products. They may have different ideas. But our job is to communicate to them that they have options.

Is Fagerhult working with any architects at the moment?

Turner: We’ve started working with a handful of really reputable architects and the questions we’re getting from them is about how to achieve some really green, sustainable, LEED-accredited solutions and how best to wrap them in some really unique, cutting-edge designs. The reality is that in every building in the Middle East, we use tens of thousands of different types of lighting solutions.

The key issue for me is simple: with all the talk about achieving certain environmental standards for our end clients and being responsible to the global community, how can we best provide architects and designers with products they can use on a light-for-light basis that will reduce their energy loads by 30 to 40%? 
We’re not asking [architects] to create a revolution or drastically alter their design, just think differently about the existing technology.

Is that PR-speak or is a 40% reduction actually possible?

Turner: If we take a typical Dubai-style office, they’ve got anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 lights in them—all burning at 26 watts. We don’t need to do that anymore; we can replace them with bulbs that burn at out the project.