Lighting - A Special Focus

The changing dynamics of lighting

Sanjay Puri

Lighting plays a pivotal role in creating the ambience in any space whether it is a lobby, a restaurant, a bar, a corridors or a hotel room. It also plays an important role in enhancing the architectural form of a building.

In earlier times, the variety of lighting available was limited and therefore light was restricted to being yellow or white and spaces could only as a result be rendered dimly lit or brightly lit.

However today the variety of lighting available is extensive. Fiber optics, LED, and a wide variety of incandescent and florescent lighting coupled with dimming options and intelligent building management systems allow for a wide variety of lighting solutions.

The intensity of lighting can be varied at the flick of a remote switch and colours can be computer controlled and set a timers to gradually blend into each other or change radically creating a variety of looks and feel to the space.

The space planning and layout, furniture styles and rendition of space by form, colour, textures and materials create an interior space setting a mood or ambience that is static. Lighting is the singular element that can create dynamic space since it allows variation. Lighting can completely transform the ambience of the same space to depict or create the setting for a variety of moods.

Used as an exterior element light can be used to highlight a complete building or only a few elements of the building completely transforming the way the building is perceived at night. In the Mosaic Hotel in Delhi we worked with Light Box, an international lighting consultant to create a variety of moods

The fluid bar at the Mosaic Hotel is completely white rendered space with concealed LED fittings that change the hues of the entire bar from pink to orange to yellow green and blue shades at twenty minute intervals allowing the space to become dynamic.

Effectively placed lights on the exterior light up the composition of the building facade that is a mosaic of white, clear and purple glass. The lobby in Mosaic hotel has a focal wall with glass cylinders each fitted with a LED light that is like an art installation changing colours constantly.

Each room is designed with a rarity of lights that allow the guests to select the mood they would like to create in the room from subdued to being brightly lit. In Cinemax, a six screen multiplex in Mumbai, we used colour change LEDs behind large glass screens to create a variety of moods in the lounge area.

Currently under completion in Kolkata, The Verve Hotel that we have designed will be like a dynamic lantern glowing at night. The entire building is punctuated by circular windows each of which is lit by an LED light, with colour change. Thus the entire building would glow in different colours at different times of the night.

(The author is proprietor of Sanjay Puri Architects, Mumbai. Website: www.sanjaypuriarchitects.com)