A DAILY DOSE OF ARCHITECTURE BOOKS – BOOK REVIEW: LIGHTING DESIGN & PROCESS

John Hill reviews the book Light Design & Process by Jean M. Sundin and Enrique Peiniger of OVI.  The review outlines the work of OVI as well as the importance of architectural lighting and lighting designers while giving thoughtful feedback on the book by the founders of OVI.

By John Hill

I’ll admit that when it comes to light, I veer toward books that focus on natural light, such as titles like Henry Plummer’s Nordic Light and Mary Ann Steane’s The Architecture of Light. As an architect I understand the important of artificial lighting for interiors and exteriors, even though I believe the best buildings exploit natural light’s qualities to their fullest. People cannot exist today without artificial lighting, and therefore it should be an integral part of the design process. One problem for me is that books on lighting design, rather than those on natural light, tend to be overly technical, with an emphasis on general conditions rather that specific applications. This is the case with a book by ERCO I featured five years ago, but a book by Herve Descottes of L’Observatoire International, which I briefly reviewed three years ago, points in the other direction, toward accessible case studies that explain how general principles of light are applied to specific projects. Light Design & Process by Jean M. Sundin and Enrique Peiniger’s Office for Visual Interaction (OVI) falls into the latter camp, and they do an excellent job of showing how lighting designers work to create solutions that can be dramatic, subtle or even invisible.

See more about the book: https://www.oviinc.com/2013/08/16/publications/

Read the full review here: https://archidose.blogspot.com/2015/04/book-review-lighting-design-process.html