Lighting the Middle East

Electrolight director Paul Beale feels that lighting draws out the essence of a project.

Electrolight director Paul Beale tells us the importance of luminosity and how lighting is one of the most vital factors in bringing out the ambience of a project.

When the exterior environment is as dramatic and relentless as the desert climate of the Middle East and the cultural backdrop is so vast and multifarious, a considered approach to the lighting design of the exterior and interior space is paramount.

By exploring the landscape and the way in which it has shaped people’s interactions and behaviours we find rich conceptual material around which to formulate our lighting design ideas.

Our exterior and interior lighting design process is informed by a method of phenomenological or eidetic reduction where the experience of a particular experience or geography is transformed into categorical intuition in order to discover the essence of an object or landscape. The result is light, which is not only functional and aesthetic, but laden with meaning. We work to create buildings which are luminous rather than merely illuminated.

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We have recently designed lighting for a large scale commercial headquarters building for a financial institution in Doha, Qatar, that demanded an examination of the connection between the geography of a place and approach to interior lighting treatments. Doha is geographically located on a peninsula, surrounded by sea, on the edge of a desert.

A desert typified by scrubby terrain and buffeted by strong south easterly winds which erode and mould the features of the landscape. Extremes of temperature prevail shaping the choice of fixtures, lamps and control systems.

The warmth of the sun, sand and earth contrasts with the sparkling cool of salt, sea and sky. The exterior landscape informs ideas about scale and space. Scale of light takes inspiration from the notions of the limitless depth of the ocean and the vast expanse of the desert.

The quality of exterior and interior light on the project seeks to evoke the meeting point of the desert and sea, two landscapes that shimmer with translucency and potency and are expressive of Gaston Bachelard’s notion of “intimate immensity.”

Colour temperatures reflect and enhance the natural colours present in the environment. The shimmer of the horizon line is inspiration for the quality of light.

As with most of the world’s religions, light is a fundamental component of the Islamic faith, featuring imaginatively in the suras and prayers. The 24th sura of the Qur’an draws on the allegory of God’s Light as a parable for the light of a lamp in a niche or small window.

The image of the secure, glowing interior glimpsed through the veiled window is evocative of security and home. Or as French philosopher and psychologist Gaston Bachelard said, “The lamp is the spirit that watches over every room. It is the centre of the house. A house without a lamp is as unthinkable as a lamp without a house.”

Mashrabiyas began as windows on the upper floors of Middle Eastern buildings.

Clad with decorative wooden screens, the light was filtered and softened, providing a view to the exterior whilst simultaneously protecting the occupant within from heat and unwanted public gaze. Architectural equivalents together with integrated lighting treatments can evoke a sense of a gentle environment responsive to both climate and culture.

We have worked on other Middle Eastern projects including the Milad Tower in Tehran.  A lot of the architecture in the Middle East is of a scale and complexity that demands a rigorous approach to the lighting design.

If you would like to write for Construction Week in this column, please email rob.wagner@itp.com