Without careful attention to lighting detail, the sheer number of architectural features worth highlighting can quickly create lighting noise or result in a uniform, featureless space.
Sacred spaces, especially those of traditional design, are created to inspire awe and reverence, encourage emotional response, and invite inward reflection. Lighting designers are acutely aware of the powerful roles light and shadow can play in eliciting an appropriate audience response -- and they expertly use lighting and lighting controls to help define and direct the visual hierarchy of worship services, weddings, concerts, or other special events.
While the need for dramatic lighting is universally accepted, there is no one right way of achieving the perfect result. Lighting designers may be working with deep rich wood, heavy stone, and traditional stained glass, or painted walls and bright, airy daylit spaces. Without careful attention to lighting detail, the sheer number of architectural features worth highlighting can quickly create lighting noise or result in a uniform, featureless space. This not only detracts from the worship experience, it causes energy waste and wreaks havoc with lighting power allowances in building energy codes. Appropriate dimming and lighting control strategies, designed around the needs of the space, can re-establish visual focus while allowing for maximum flexibility, efficiency, and reduced maintenance costs.
Setting the Scene: Shade, Shadow, and Highlight
Skillfully chosen lighting and lighting controls can enhance the meaning and spirituality of the worship space by taking advantage of different surfaces – light colored stone reflects light, dark hardwood absorbs light, and colorful windows play with the daylight in the space. Sculptures, altars, floral arrangements and metal work can be highlighted for emphasis, using aim-able spotlights and floodlights with lenses and baffles, without overwhelming the solemn purpose of the space.Sometimes theatrical light fixtures are used for exact precision of light control. Architectural features like high walls, ceilings and vaulting must be lit to emphasize wide, open areas, effectively reinforcing the feeling of grandeur that one expects from a sacred space. This is typically done with indirect pendants, cove lighting, or artfully hidden indirect wall packs.Each of these features can be subtly acknowledged, while still preserving the critical hierarchy of the service itself.
The service generally requires four main lighting components:
- Task lighting for reading
- Accent lighting on the worship leader and religious objects, flowers, and altars
- General, ambient lighting
- Celebration lighting.
With the exception of lighting over the religious leader, uniform light levels are the enemy of drama and emotion – using advanced dimming and preset scene controls allows carefully crafted lighting scenarios to ensure contrast and enhance visual interest. Considering the multi-functional nature of these worship areas, the scene control is of particular importance, and dimming is essential in these types of spaces. With carefully crafted lighting scenarios, dimming can provide mood enhancement and proper architectural highlights, all while saving energy and generally extending the life of the lamps for reduced ongoing maintenance.
Lighting control systems can be as simple as local dimming control, or as sophisticated as automated scene control that adjusts both lights and shades quickly and silently at the touch of a single button, or based on pre-scheduled event timing. The project budget, space size, and variety of activities will help determine the necessary level of control. In the primary worship areas, scene controls are particularly useful for facilitating easy transition from one lighting scheme to the next. Michael John Smith, Principal at MJS Light, explains that worship lighting often requires a combination of light sources and control strategies to deliver the desired user experience. “At minimum, four preset scene settings are essential: pre-service, service, space at rest/daytime, and space at rest/evening.” Depending on the technical prowess of the religious leader or the maintenance staff, additional scenes can be programmed, and accessed from controls right at the pulpit, or even from pocket-sized remote controls that can move with the worship leader.
According to the IESNA Lighting Handbook, daylight should be considered in every aspect of the space, and must be treated as a critical element of the lighting design.
Daylight is tremendously beneficial in sacred spaces, useful for both its natural and dynamic aesthetics. According to the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) Lighting Handbook, daylight should be considered in every aspect of the space, and must be treated as a critical element of the lighting design. In many worship spaces, daylight is filtered through elaborate stained glass windows. Using strategic design techniques, this decorative feature can be used to reduce the need for electric light and create a bright, welcoming atmosphere. If useful daylight is available, consider including daylight harvesting as part of the control system. Lighting controls can automatically dim electric lighting in response to sufficient daylight. Shades can also be used as a type of lighting control, able to temper bright light and reduce heat gain on hot summer days. Motorized shades provide adaptive daylight control for both easy and hard-to-reach glazing, and again can be combined with scene control to simplify changes in space use. For additional energy savings, consider using automated shades that close to reduce solar heat and glare, but open to take advantage of glare-free daylight harvesting. All of this can be combined into one seamless control system that is easy to operate and manage throughout the life of the building.
Light Sources – A Changing Aesthetic
Like homes, many sacred spaces have historically relied on incandescent and halogen lighting to deliver the warm color temperatures and high color rendering that is typically associated with religious worship. The ability to dim almost every light within the space remains absolutely essential, and until recently LED bulbs did not offered the color rendering or controllability lighting designers demand in these spaces. Today, retrofit projects often turn to screw-based LEDs to reduce electricity costs, and to comply with new legislation that makes most traditional incandescent bulbs illegal to manufacture or import into the United States.
Performance lighting in worship facilities used to be exempt from many energy codes, but code compliance is now extending lighting power density limits to religious spaces. According to Michael John Smith, lighting designers are coming to terms with the fact that LED lighting is the way of the future. However, he still prefers halogens to highlight floral arrangements and prominently light the worship leader. “LEDs are definitely getting better. In new projects, we are starting to use LED lighting throughout the worship space, but I still look to use warm light sources where people are the focus. We also carefully test LED bulbs and controls to ensure that I can get the color I’m expecting.” Many manufacturers now routinely test sources and controls to ensure expected performance, but controls can only perform to the limits of a bulb’s dimming and color capability – they maximize the range of the light source, but cannot extend beyond the bulb’s inherent limits. As such, validation of light source and control operable is an important step in the design process.
Flexible, expandable lighting is not just reserved for new construction. Retrofit light fixture kits, as well as combining the properly selected screw-based LED replacement lamps and controls, are available for most existing fixture types. In addition, new, wireless lighting control systems make it easy to achieve lighting control goals in any space, including historic structures where rewiring and re-positioning controls can be prohibitively expensive as well as architecturally disastrous. Look for manufacturers who offer more than 15 years of experience and consistent performance with wireless technologies to provide easy-to-install, easy-to-program control options that won’t detract from the original design of the space.
Beyond the Sanctuary – Lighting is Important for Every Space
Although architectural lighting and control is critical in the sanctuary, a worship community relies heavily on other spaces in the building or campus during non-worship times. In these spaces – back-of-house, meeting areas, youth or community rooms, restrooms, classrooms – energy efficiency, automatic control, and flexibility may be the more critical elements of lighting design. By using highly efficient sources in less architecturally significant areas, designers can reserve the freedom to stick with halogen sources in key worship areas while still meeting and exceeding building codes.
Restrooms
Simple, in-wall occupancy sensors can be used with high-efficiency fluorescent or LED lighting to ensure that lights turn off when the space is vacant, conserving precious energy in rooms that may be used very infrequently
Multi-Use – Community or Youth spaces
These spaces may house everything from youth group activities to community yard sales. There may even be divided spaces that accommodate multiple events at one time, or combine for large gatherings. High-efficiency, fluorescent fixtures with flexible lighting controls are key to meeting the needs of different audiences. Occupancy sensors, combined with daylight sensors in spaces with large windows, can ensure that lights are at appropriate levels without over-lighting the area and wasting energy. Dimming and shade control can be especially important in youth facilities where A/V presentations are common. There are even scene control devices that detect open or closed partitions for separate or combined control as needed.
Back-of-House
The back-of-house spaces are all business. Service preparations, meetings, private conferences, and even luncheons may take place in these areas. Again, reduced wattage fluorescent and LED sources in combination with control systems can be used to effectively manage the lighting in these spaces, but still deliver the light quality and expected dimming range required for any support activity.
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