Lighting a room with color

Light and color are very closely related: we wouldn't see color without light, and yet light is composed of color. Breaking down the visible spectrum reveals the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Colored light is found naturally when sunlight passes through the many layers of the atmosphere and becomes scattered. There is a beauty and attraction in colored light that cannot be found in pigment or dyes.

Colored light has a celestial quality, as it seems pure, luminous and radiant. As lighting designers, we can harness this power of color. Using color in light, we can direct the viewer's attention and we can enhance an element of a building, room, or object. Mood can be suggested and changed through light, and can enhance or destroy the visual appeal of a space.

Not sure when to use color? Lighting designer Leni Schwendinger of New York City–based Light Projects has created a check list for evaluating potential design opportunities when it comes to employing colored light. The list includes reinforcing identity, enhancing an architectural element, or creating an artistic interpretation.

For Schwendinger, a successful lighting design strengthens the existing color, texture, or shape of the object and/or surface. This approach, she feels, renders the object as “more of what it already is.” However designers choose to use color and light, and in making the decision to employ this element, architects and lighting designers need to ensure that their design and method support the project objectives. Implementing color into a lighting design requires a responsible hand, and, as most lighting designers would agree, should not be introduced just for the sake of color itself.

A CASE IN POINT

Completed in November 2006, one project that explores the use and role of colored lighting as an integral part of the design approach is the Adopt A Room program at the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, Fairview, in Minneapolis. It is a pilot program focused on creating comfortable surroundings for severely ill children and their families, whereby private and corporate donors can adopt and sponsor the renovation of hospital rooms.

A typical pediatric hospital room environment was evaluated by children and their families, as well as by nurses and doctors, and these participants conceptualized design ideas for the ultimate dream room. Qualities www.archlighting.com deemed most important were a sense of comfort, control of the room, and a connection to the outside world.

In a charrette held by the architectural and interior design teams of Perkins+Will's Minneapolis office, the designers behind the project, a group of children who had been patients were asked how they envisioned light in their dream room. Responses included lava lamps, a sky on the ceiling, and the ability to paint the room with color.

Taking these ideas into consideration, lighting designer Greg Lecker of Minneapolis–based lighting firm LightSpaces, a division of Michaud Cooley Erickson Consulting Engineers, and his team set out to design a space that met the desires of the children while simultaneously addressing the needs of medical professionals.

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