The BSJ Lighting Debate, supported by Zumtobel Staff Lighting provided a lively exchange of views on lighting methods and specification.
The BSJ Lighting Debate, supported by Zumtobel Staff Lighting, held on 23 October brought together a variety of views on lighting use and specification.

Conserving energy without compromising productivity and staff well-being was the theme addressed in the opening session. The DTLR's Ted King gave an overview on the thinking behind the new Approved Document L that comes into effect on 1 April 2002 and how it will effect lighting designers. The new Regulations aim to increase energy efficiency while allowing sufficient design flexibility. There are new performance standards for luminaires in offices and storage buildings. Lighting serving areas of 100 m2 or more now includes display lighting, which was previously exempt. New standards for commissioning and user information have also been introduced. It was pointed out that CIBSE is well advanced in the production of a commissioning guide for lighting. Due out next year, the proposed multi part completion certificate will require demonstration of compliance at the design and installation stage with a sign off by the building owner. A new section on historic buildings has also been added.

Doug King of Buro Happold called for the lighting industry to refocus its approach in his talk on the relationship between efficient lighting and productivity in the workplace. He argued that design by numbers invariably results in unsatisfactory schemes. Rather than imposing a uniform standard designers should identify the working plane more accurately and consider how people work and interact within the space, addressing the lighting to suit. "People are adaptive flexible creatures. We've got to allow for them to be interactive and have control of their space or risk them becoming dissatisfied, and dissatisfied people are unproductive people" he argued.

Consultant David Loe put forward his views on the importance of architectural and amenity lighting in achieving a productive workplace. He emphasised the need for designers to consider visual lightness and interest, particularly the use of a variety of fittings integrated with the architecture rather than bolted on as an afterthought. Loe believes that despite any hard data the extra cost of these schemes can be justified by the increase in productivity. He was in agreement with Doug King on the need to give users greater control and added that users will often go for lower illuminance levels than normally required if given the facility to do so.

The second session considered the use of colour and coloured lighting in buildings. Fresh from picking up RIBA's Stirling Prize for the Magna Centre, project architect Marc Barron from Wilkinson Eyre explained how material form, colour and light had been used to differentiate the four main spaces within the former steelworks. The services of lighting designers Spiers and Major were employed to dramatically enhance the architecture of the windowless building using just a limited range of colours.

Continuing the theme of colour research assistant Jane Duncan from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts gave an overview of a recent project to study the effects of visual arts in the healthcare environment. Duncan was able to demonstrate that feedback to the environment became more positive in the three months after the project completion showing the slow acceptance to changes in the visual environment.

Session three: 'Speculative office space – has Cat 2 become a mark of poor quality?' produced some lively debate. Kevin Cooke of AYH Project Management explained why, when it comes to lighting, institutional standards count. Speaking as a project manager involved in the corporate end-user field he said that virtually all end-users would at some point sell their building to raise finance. For this reason it is essential that the installed office lighting complies with the current institutional standards – with developers often specifying compliance with the BCO Guide. Cooke believes that the lighting industry has made LG3 Category 2 an easy tick in the box for the real estate advisers and funders who make the decisions. "You've got to find a simple standard to replace this and convince the real estate adviser community that it's an acceptable institutional standard," said Cooke.

Owen Howlett, lighting researcher at Zumtobel Staff Lighting, gave a technical and historical context to lighting with specular louvres, explaining why LG3 Category 2 lighting is now a mark of bad quality. He went on to say that within LG3 it is now possible to do a lot more, with a much broader range of solutions possible. However he pointed out that the onus is on the lighting designer to justify why they've chosen a particular solution. "You can get away with a lot more than you could before," he concluded.

Tim Battle from the British Council for Offices (BCO) spoke about the BCO Guide 2000 and appealed for those involved in the procurement of office space to place greater emphasis on value rather than cost. As comfort influences workplace productivity the building services and the building fabric should be designed together in a complete heuristic service.

"For far too long the lighting industry has concentrated on producing products and not paid much attention to how the illumination levels that are promised will affect the workplace," pointed out Battle. "Our concern as an industry is to produce a working environment that is not only energy efficient but that actually produces a positive and beneficial ambience that in turn improves productivity."

Although the BCO Guide refers to LG3 in detail, Battle made the point that the industry needs to inform the BCO what should go in the guide.

"Those who tick the boxes can then look at the guide and say okay does it conform? You've got to tell us what makes sense in the way that an agent can understand" he said.

The last word goes to Doug King: "We appreciate what the BCO is trying to do, but at the moment the BCO standard for lighting is not best practice it's lowest common denominator practice and that's something we have to take responsibility for as an industry."

He added: "We've failed in educating end users and effectively painted ourselves into a corner."