ILLUMINATI: Paul Sangha’s 5 tips for Lighting Outdoors

5 TIPS ON HOW TO LIGHT EFFECTIVELY OUTDOORS WITH

We asked landscape architect and trailblazer, Paul Sangha, to contribute to our November newsletter with some tips on what to consider when lighting your outdoor space. He came back with some fantastic considerations.

Landscape lighting design follows the same design principles as any good design process.

1 . Initially, look at the spatial definitions that are desired using light as your walls and views.

2.  Second, consider how someone would move through the spaces safely across walkways, terraces, and stairs.

3.  Third, light is your paintbrush on a dark canvas, and as such, consider what is to be highlighted or drawn back.

4.  Fourth, consider that intensity of light will determine how much your pupil will dilate. Hence, it is important to have a more even lighting pattern using more fixtures at a lower wattage to create and frame space versus fewer fixtures with higher wattages creating hot spots which require time for the pupil to adjust.

5.  Lastly, in lighting view properties, illuminating the ground tends to take your eye out to a view versus having hot spots in front of a view thereby reducing the sense of space. Night lighting of gardens allows the northern hemisphere projects to benefit significantly during the winter months, drawing the outside spaces in even when spending more time indoors.