LIGHTING LATER LIVING

Lighting

LATER LIVING

Illuminating the high-end later-living development of Auriens Chelsea in London has meant developing a scheme that is luxurious, detailed and layered, but which also delivers appropriate lighting levels for ageing eyes

By Nic Paton

Auriens Chelsea is a luxury later-living development located on Dovehouse Street, just off London’s King’s Road.

The development, which comprises 56 high-end apartments, opened to residents near the end of last year and, it argues, combines the luxury of a five-start hotel with the more discreet ambience of a private members’ club.

Lighting design practice Nulty was tasked with creating and delivering a lighting scheme for the development, a project it began in 2017 and completed in the middle of last year.

As well as the specifics of the project – which we’ll come to shortly – from a CPD perspective, one of the most interesting aspects of the whole scheme has been the reflection and conversation it generated around delivering effective lighting for an ageing audience.

As Ellie Coombs, managing director at Nulty, tells Lighting Journal: ‘For me, one of the most fascinating elements of the scheme was the opportunity it gave us really to think about and consider some of the wider aspects around illumination for later living.

‘We did a lot of research around what was needed; relatively standard issues, such as appropriate lighting levels for ageing eyes and loss of adaptation as the eye gets older; the fact that glare and contrast become much more problematic in later life and so on.

‘But the scheme also brought home to us some wider issues around later living, and where lighting can play an important role. This, after all, is the point of life where people might be beginning to lose some of their freedom and mobility. If they’re needing assisted living, for example, they may be having carers coming in.

‘In this sort of scenario, residents might not be leaving their house for long periods of time. Or they might be limited to certain rooms. Yet we also know that being in an internal environment with limited access to daylight is not good for anyone,’ Ellie adds.

Architectural lighting

Auriens Chelsea, showing the new lighting scheme by Nulty. Clockwise from left: the cinema, an apartment kitchen, and the pool. All photographs by Sim Canetty Clarke HIGHER LEVELS THAN NORMAL

This meant that, when it came to lighting the apartments, the first priority was, of course, simply to be lighting the interiors effectively, with recessed downlights and cove lighting providing ambient illumination throughout all of the living areas and accentuating artwork displayed on the walls.

The integrated lighting in the kitchens and bathrooms is more task based, with subtle details such as LED strips behind mirrors and concealed lighting within wardrobes.

Yet, at the same time, a further priority was the scheme needing to be balancing this attention to detail with lighting that works for, well, older eyes.

‘In terms of the lux levels, we defined a range of targets for the different areas, depending on where they were, that were higher than what we would normally design to because of these aspects,’ Ellie explains.

‘So, we were designing to a good 20% above to what we would normally attribute to the general levels. Plus there was a need for increased uniformity across the spaces, and then we were also trying to build in diffused light to help with the glare aspects and all of that,’ he continues.

‘For example, in the apartments we designed the base level lighting to 150 lux with higher levels (200 lux) around certain areas, such as kitchens, bathrooms and key circulation routes as these were areas where issues with visual impairment had the highest potential for incident.

‘In other task areas, however, levels are boosted to between 350 lux and 500 lux. We specified a colour temperature range from 2700K to 5000K with 2700k at dawn and dusk with the colour temperature peaking at midday at the 5000K,’ Ellie adds.

Architectural lighting

Ellie’s comments here also highlight an innovation to the scheme: the fact residents can enable circadian-linked lighting within their apartments, so transitioning from warm to cool white and back again.

As Ellie explains: ‘Residents have the option to enable it and it will then cycle through the colour temperatures throughout the day in line with the natural changes in daylight. They can either simply set the lighting to a standard 2700K, if that’s their preference, or they can just hit a button and it will start cycling through, based on the astronomical timeclock to suit the time of day and the area in which it is within and the season.

‘There is a huge range of ages among the residents and a huge range of visual needs and physical needs, so I think having something that can adapt to that is so helpful. It might even be the difference between not having to move someone out of an apartment when they get to the point where they need to have a bit more help,’ Ellie continues.

‘As part of their agreement with Auriens, they can get a carer coming in if they need one, and so our scheme can enable the right, most appropriate, lighting to be in place to help support that and enable residents to, for example, get the best night’s sleep,’ she adds.

PRESET SCENES AT NIGHT

On the issue of night-time lighting, and staying with the apartments, preset night-time scenes help residents navigate the space in the dark by illuminating the path from bedroom to bathroom. Light levels here are set at 20 lux across key points to allow safe movement through the apartment at night.

‘The night-time is about, obviously, having a safe level for them to get around,’ Ellie emphasises. ‘You want as little artificial light as possible in the evening and night-time. We also had to take mobility issues into account. The night-lighting scheme is, of course, very low level. The key is that if someone, say, needs to get up and go to the bathroom in the night they don’t need to have all the lights on; you’re not going to have this sudden change of dark-to-light, which the eye can struggle with.

‘Instead, you have these low-level accent lights washing the floor, so there is less chance of someone struggling to find their way or having a trip or fall,’ Ellie explains.

The ‘speakeasy’ bar and, below, an apartment dining area

PURPOSELY LAYERED LIGHTING

Across the project as a whole, light levels have been purposely layered, with illumination boosted at higher levels through recessed downlights and through coffer lighting to improve wayfinding and assist those with reduced visual acuity. Turning to other areas of the development, in the double-height lobby a combination of oversized pendants and decorative table lamps have been used on the reception and concierge desks. At a higher-level, soft cove lighting and wall lights enhance light levels and encourage circulation throughout the space. In the Culfords restaurant, linear coffer lighting highlights the architectural detail of the Georgian ceiling, while circular branch pendants form a striking visual contrast. In this area as well, as a frequently used area (along with the library and the apartments), tuneable white light has been used, again, to emulate natural daylight.

Within the library (where, again, tuneable white light is used) dimmable table lamps have been strategically placed where residents may stop to read a book or play a game, while concealed lighting into the joinery is used to improve the legibility of, say, books or items on shelves.

The scheme’s careful attention to detail can also be seen in the downstairs ‘speakeasy’ bar. Here, the light has been used to pick out the dark wood panelling, upholstered pieces and metallic finishes. Undercounter lighting and LED strips around the shelving provide detail-enhancing illumination with the intention of drawing your eye to the bar area. Decorative wall lights provide halos of light above seating areas and recessed downlights provide further visual cues to support movement around the space. In the pool and spa area, there is an artificial skylight with tuneable white light, which creates the illusion of natural daylight flooding the space directly above the water with light. Cove

Architectural lighting

lighting and recessed downlights, again, form light effects across the floor, while back illuminated strip panels made from recycled glass provide a striking visual feature

‘Every detail has been carefully thought out to ensure light serves a clear purpose and enriches each space for the people that use it,’ Ellie explains.

‘The feedback we’ve had so far generally has been very positive, although it hasn’t of course been open for that long yet. There has been very positive feedback around the experience as a whole,’ she adds.

KEY LEARNING POINTS

As a lighting professional, the project also generated a number of interesting learning points and takeaways, Ellie emphasises.

‘There was a lot we picked up just from researching this area of later living quite closely, looking into what lighting can do to support that,’ she tells Lighting Journal.

‘For example, I was fascinated by the links there are between lighting and cognitive impairment or dementia. There have been studies around how sleep cycles and circadian rhythms can have a really big impact on these sorts of conditions, which was something I would never have thought about,’ Ellie continues.

‘Anything lighting or interior design can do to support better cognition, or to limit cognitive impairment such as dementia or conditions such as that, the better of course. And this is something that could have a big bearing in the future as, after all, we are an ageing population in the UK.

‘For me it was also mind-blowing to think just how bad things can be for your circadian rhythms if you are just sat inside for the day, perhaps unable to get out of bed or something like that – and how circadian lighting can help to mitigate that. That was a huge learning moment for me; just to be able to see how it can be in my daily life and then imagining it for someone in that circumstance,’ Ellie adds in conclusion.

Clockwise from top: an apartment primary bedroom, the the lounge, spa, and ‘Culfords’ restaurant

‘WE NEED A SHIFT IN THE STANDARDS’ APRIL 2022 LIGHTING JOURNAL 44

MIN STANDARDS MAX

Current standards for LED lighting still don’t go far enough in terms of tackling, and resolving, ongoing concerns around glare, argues Leonardo Bartoletti. He makes the case that a new approach is needed for measuring LED intensity, spectrum, photometry and spacing

By Leonardo Bartoletti with Ruth Dutton

As ILP members well know, LED street lighting luminaires have transformed how our public realm is illuminated. Yet, complaints about the feeling of discomfort they can cause, especially in terms of glare, remain stubbornly persistent. This, in turn, poses an important question: as technology improves, how can we maintain the advantages we derive from LEDs while increasing visual comfort?

I intend to argue in this article that, to answer this, we need to improve not just our understanding of LED glare and discomfort but, critically, our criteria as an industry for assessing.

Let me explain. It wasn’t that long ago that the most common colour temperature for streetlamps was cool white CCT 6000K or even higher. Yes, LED luminaires are now evolving into gentler, more userfriendly forms. Yes, too, it is true that streetlamps with a neutral or warm-white colour temperature are now the most commonly used.

However, it is also increasingly recognised that the speed at which we need to be adopting more sustainable LED lighting has to increase if we are to move to less environmentally harmful industry and business models.

To my mind, one way this shift can be accelerated is if we review and update the calculations that are used to determine street lighting standards, such as the volume of acceptable glare created.

UNINTENDED SIDE-EFFECTS

Developed since the 1970s, in other words before LEDs were commonplace, the current calculations, I’d argue, are no longer fit for purpose for specifying the best-quality LED lighting. Nor do they ensure the safest or healthiest option is always used.

The difficulty with LEDs is there are often unintended, undesirable side-effects: harshness of light, glare, uneven lighting, and hard shadows, for example.

These concerns are not trivial. Such side-effects can affect mood, productivity, alertness, safety, comfort, spatial awareness and depth perception. The discomfort associated with LED glare can feed through into worries (justified or not) about artificial lighting’s impact on our circadian rhythms or general wellbeing.

While no one within lighting would, of course, argue that the answer is to do away with LED – its advantages and flexibility are too great – there is an argument that we have abandoned traditional luminaires without fully updating the metrics we need properly to evaluate this new light source.

Opinion: glare and LEDs

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

This article outlines opinions around, and solutions to, glare and LED lighting, an area of longstanding (and complex) debate within the industry.

So, what do you think? We’d love to hear your views, either as a letter to the editor or even an article in response. All you need to do is email editor Nic Paton at nic@cormorantmedia.co.uk to get things underway.

Traditional discharge lamps adopt a single light source to create uniform luminance. LED luminaires, in the other hand, contain multiple small and high-intensity light sources. Yet – and this is the important point – we continue to use the same metrics to evaluate whether this new lighting is adequate in terms of luminance and/or comfort.

In the absence of a more nuanced regulatory approach, one that considers and is able properly to mitigate the unwanted effects of LED glare, manufacturers, naturally, will simply continue to push the technological envelope as far as it will go. They will continue to prioritise efficiency and cost over glare and comfort.

Prior to 2006, LED lights were considered under the same legislation as lasers because, historically, LEDs were used as signal lights rather than to illuminate large areas. In fact, LEDs were not even at that time considered suitable for general lighting. Therefore, there were no product or street lighting standards compatible with LED products.

As we all know, post 2006 that situation began to change rapidly. As the drive to save energy increased and people began to grasp what LEDs were capable of, so the demand for more widespread use of energy efficient LEDs accelerated. As a result, in 2008 the IEC general lighting standards were updated to include LED lighting [1].

However, the calculation methodologies designed to ensure maximum energy savings and the containment of lighting levels to values suitable for use were simply transferred to the new standard.

After public complaints and concerns from experts and environmental associations, the lighting regulations were further revised in 2013. However, even this update did not consider the differences in luminance technology from LED as it rapidly evolved.

NEED FOR A SHIFT IN STANDARDS

What has therefore happened is that, over the past seven years, street lighting specifications have remained based on the 2013 standards.

A further revision of the luminaire regulations by the CIE in 2020 emphasised the need to define a new appropriate specifications’ model for LEDs, one that addressed the glare problem in a more contemporary way, as soon as possible. But we’re still not there.

To my mind, such a shift in the standards – long overdue – will encourage the specification of sustainable lighting products that co-exist with more visually comfortable and aesthetically pleasing LEDs.

This, in turn, could lead to something of a virtuous paradigm shift, where we as an industry promote as standard the best, rather than simply the cheapest, option when it comes to LED.

Of course, there may need to be a client education piece that has to go with this (hopefully small) extra cost.

But I’d argue the longer-term gain will be that all of us – municipalities, organisations, individuals – continue to benefit from the extensive energy savings that come with using LED while at the same time enjoying a plethora of additional health and environmental benefits.

Finally, I’d argue this is a change that cannot come too soon. After all, without speedy agreement on what actually are the most appropriate metrics for measuring LED intensity, spectrum, photometry and LED spacing, arguably we’re simply throwing money away. We’re installing millions of LED luminaires that are potentially unsuitable for use, could even be described as dangerous and which will, when or if that happens, be costly to replace.

[1] EN 62031:2008/A1:2013 ‘LED modules for general lighting – safety specifications’, https://webstore.iec.ch/preview/info_iec62031%7Bed2.0.RLV%7Den.pdf Leonardo Bartoletti is marketing manager with Cree Lighting. He was assisted by Ruth Dutton, a content writer and communications strategist at Chirp

FIND OUT MORE

This article is based on a longer ‘white paper’ developed by Cree Lighting. For ILP members interested in finding out more, the paper ‘Is street lighting damaging to our health?’ can be downloaded through this QR code