Creating a lighting scheme for a heritage building is a wonderful opportunity to enhance the architectural features whilst being sympathetic to the building. A good place to start is to think about how the building would have been lit years ago, most likely with candles, and enhance this by now using LEDs.
Here is Truly Lighting’s approach to lighting a heritage building.
Layering
Layer the lighting with the use of lighting in the ceiling, walls and floors. This helps to create different mood settings throughout the day.
Recess vs surface mounted
Often in heritage properties it is not possible to recess into the ceilings of the building if the property is listed. We therefore need to rely on surface mounted lighting. Surface mounted spotlights or downlights can be used, but if you want to be more discreet, instead of using visible spots in the ceilings, Truly’s approach is to work with picture lights, or to cleverly conceal spots onto decorative pendants which can then by directed at art work. These would need to be custom made, so Truly Lighting would work directly with a decorative lighting manufacturer to get these designed.
Window lighting
Lighting to window reveals is another stunning effect, especially on a listed building where these are often beautiful architectural parts of the façade. We use miniature surface mounted uplights that are specially designed for these types of applications.
Discretion is key
Choosing fittings that are RAL finished enables the lighting to be discreet and blend in with the surroundings. This is to avoid the light fittings becoming the feature, and it is just the effect that is visible. Using small fittings is also important as these can easily be hidden within the building. With the use of LED’s we are now able to get miniature fittings that still produce a high output.
While heritage projects require a very considered approach, they are amazing to work on. You are given an already beautiful canvas and it is really a case of enhancing it, making the most of the stunning architecture.