Discussion: From Lighting Technology to Lighting Design
What are the main approaches to good lighting planning? When I began my career in lighting technology 5 decades ago, I was only interested in the technical and physical aspects. In the mid-twentieth century, measuring lux and efficiency and calculating lighting systems was the "standard setting" for the entire profession. But what is the purpose of these specific values? Were we perhaps approaching the topic from the wrong angle? To understand the fundamentals of light and its effects we must direct our attention to the mainspring of every project: the human eye. According to neuroscientist Eric Kandel, about half of all sensory input is visual. Seeing well is a prerequisite to "recognition". As research in our laboratory has shown, optimising vision requires the stabilisation of the visual performance for the entire field of vision. The fovea, the zone that allows us to focus our vision, covers 20 %. The outer zone of the field of vision, in which the objects we see are out of focus, accounts for the remaining 80 %.
