By Babita Krishnan
Light makes the quality of our environment visible and impacts on our emotional and subconscious response to it. We respond emotionally to the presence of light and intuitively enjoy the different atmospheres that daylight or artificial lighting create. Like a stage production, visual ambience and impact of light can be planned down to the very last detail. A good lighting constellation — whether it is designed to aid orientation, facilitate communication or promote a sense of wellbeing — plays a key role in shaping the way we assess any experience, even if that assessment is on a purely
subliminal level.
Architect Khozema Chitalwala of Designers Group feels that lighting is the essential finishing touch for a hotel project because the ambience created by general and mood lighting at various times of the day is an area of expertise where the lighting consultants work with the designers to create the right mood. This is seconded by Architect Reza Kabul of Reza Kabul Associates, “Lighting is a delicate tool. One does not realise its importance, especially in setting the mood or highlighting certain areas or corners. It plays an extremely vital role in changing your mood.” Modern lighting technology offers a wide range of tools designed to tackle different problems. They should be used discriminatingly. Hotels and restaurants are classic service enterprises. As such, they require a lighting atmosphere designed specifically to meet guests’ or diners’ needs.
Lighting consultant Kapil Surlakar of LIGHT@WORK Design Consultants, feels that architects and interior designers are finally realising that lighting is a major contributor to the overall quality of a space. “It is important to note that though good lighting design adds value over basic lighting interventions, wrong lighting interventions can completely destroy the quality of a space,” he says. Sarangan Ramaswamy, principal consultant, Luma Design Arts, adds, “Awe-inspiring architecture, laudable landscape and innovative interiors don’t come to life in the dark. Light (natural or artificial) defines shape and form. There are several instances where hotels with excellent architectural and interior elements look bad at night because of ineffective lighting.”
But do the owners and operators give lighting the same importance as them? A hotel is a place where varied activities are carried out. D Kavarana, area manager (West) and general manager, ITC Maratha, says, “Light is a technically difficult yet astonishing medium that requires mastery of varied and continually evolving disciplines. It’s clear that quantity, quality and distribution of light have to satisfy several needs and two different subjects: hotel employees at work and guests.” Devesh Gupta, director engineering, Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida, feels that lighting in hotels must consider aesthetic elements as well as practicalities like quantity of light required, occupants of the hotel, energy efficiency and cost. The quality of lighting this necessitates does more than just enhance the visual impact of the hotel or restaurant architecture; first and foremost, it sets the stage for the guests themselves. To attain that goal, close attention needs to be paid to contemporary lighting design criteria and, in particular, to “lighting quality”. This is a factor shaped by a whole range of quality features — from illuminance, glare limitation and luminance distribution to light colour, colour rendering, direction of light and modelling. The basic ingredients of lighting quality are set out in technical standards. But lighting quality also needs to strike the right emotional note for the people, interiors or objects illuminated.
Functionality vs aesthetics
A conflict as old as design itself, there is always a tightrope walk for all concerned since one needs to be mindful of the costs involved. Surlakar, however, does not see any conflict. “Once you understand the design criteria and how to work with light, every functional illumination can be delivered aesthetically and every aesthetic luminaire can be selected to deliver a highly functional result,” he says. Chitalwala relies on the dimmer or mood setting panels, which control the luminosity of light, to create a balance between functionality and aesthetics, especially in restaurants. Ramaswamy works very closely with the designer right from the start of the project, so these issues are tackled at the early design stages. “We give priority to guest safety and build aesthetics around it,” he explains.
Gupta feels that functionality-aesthetic conflict can never be overruled during general operation of hotels as “sometimes interiors delights are operational nightmares”. The best way to tackle this conflict is to refer to guest preferences and make changes accordingly. “We overcome conflicts either by maintaining the same aesthetics with more convenient and reliable material or by simply provisioning a better maintenance schedule,” he adds. Suralkar attributes any conflict to a lack of comprehension about architectural lighting design, its possibilities and its limitations.
Sustainability
A sustainable lighting system should ensure that there is a control on power consumption. However, in the hospitality industry, the function of lighting goes beyond providing only illumination, which sometimes works contrary to the power-saving aspect of sustainability feels Surlakar. Sustainability also means saving of power by restricting or eliminating misdirected light (called light trespass) that has to be curbed or completely eliminated. “One more important aspect of sustainability, not often discussed or documented, is the disposal of spent technology. For example, if spent CFL of fluorescent tubes are not disposed correctly, mercury from them contaminates the soil, and can, in turn, percolate into the ground water tables,” he elaborates. Sustainability of a system means not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources. “We ensure sustainability by using natural light, wherever possible; employing LEDs even though a good LED system is expensive and utilising lighting control systems (dimming, switching) where incandescent sources are employed,” reveals Ramaswamy.
More than 80 per cent of the energy used in ITC Maratha is from renewable energy. “We have six MW of power generated from wind energy, thus, enhancing the environment with more power,” shares Kavarana. Sustainability goals for a property should be to lessen non-renewable energy use by reducing lighting consumption, maximising the efficiency of available lighting systems and at the same time replacing the old systems as per technical and commercial feasibility. “Most of the sustainable lighting options like LEDs, CFLs, timers, motion sensors and VFDs, are installed in our property and we have EarthCheck Silver certification for the last three years for our sustainability principles,” says Gupta. Technological developments also help in a sustainable approach. Judicious use of power management systems, appropriate lamp technologies as well as sensor technologies aid in the design of a sustainable system.
Innovation and trends
While everybody agrees that automation has made things easier with a variety of profiles and dimming systems, it is difficult to single out the most exciting innovation. Surlakar feels that in India, however, we see a lot of corners being cut as the awareness is less. “New automation systems, user-friendly interfaces, LED technology, media projections and dynamic lighting solutions are being judiciously implemented,” he says. Kabul feels that sensors help to greatly economise, not only on the consumption of electricity, but bills too. The new age LED’s are very flexible to use and are easily camouflaged wherever necessary. Chitalwala says, “Globally, LEDs with colours are being used extensively and the consistency of colour temperature is getting better with each passing day.” Kavarana adds that LED lights which come with dimmer control would be an interesting innovation that would pave the way to resolving the aesthetics-functionality conflict. Their longevity and potential to lower electricity bills adds to their value.
According to Gupta, innovations like systems that support demand response (DR) and will automatically dim or turn off lights to take advantage of DR incentives a; daylight-linked automated response systems and Passive Solar Design have made a huge difference. “Passive Solar Design makes use of the building components to collect, store, and distribute solar heat gains to reduce the demand for space heating and cooling. It does not require the use of mechanical equipment because the heat flow is by natural means (radiation, convection and conductance) and the thermal storage is in the structure itself. Also, passive solar strategies provide opportunities for day lighting and views to the outdoor through well-positioned windows,” he explains. In Ramaswamy’s opinion, the most exciting innovation in hospitality lighting is the ceiling recessed down light. “Regardless of the lamp used, it contributes to the aesthetics of the design and provides functionality. Use of day-light harvesting and alternative energy sources such as solar-powered lighting are the flavours in the industry now,” he says.
However, architectural lighting, with its highly technical equipment and parameters for safety, does not come cheap. “I think if the developers, end users and architects understand this, then our job becomes easier and we can then, as designers, lay more stress on the creative, rather than the exercise of identifying cheaper and not always technically sound luminaires to meet the impractical and often misinformed budgets,” says Surlakar.
Globally, lighting is globally being recognised as design enhancer. 2013 will see a shift from electrical to electronics with a focus on a human-centric approach, sustainability, and spatial articulation. If LED has been in vogue, it is also a technology that is evolving fast — Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diodes (FOLED) being the latest to provide amazing options to tackle some difficult lighting challenges.
