Dissertation Title: The Beautification of the Nadur Historical Centre by means of holistic lighting design. Lighting design goes hand in hand with the fields of architecture, interior design and engineering but is also creates a profession in itself and is quite distinct from the rest of the fields mentioned. Artificial lighting, besides natural lighting is one of the most important elements when constructing buildings, roads, interiors, highlighting architectural features, cities and almost anything. It is a part of our daily lives and it serves many purposes besides simply aesthetics including safety, assisting in everyday tasks, creating an atmosphere/mood, helps to identify spaces and many more. Poor lighting can badly effect the way of how a person perceives things, the mood and may also lead to incidents. The invention of artificial light changed the way we live our lives and build our surroundings, leading to new energy breakthroughs and the evolution of this topic is an interesting journey to look back on. It is important to note that the evolution of the light bulb reflects on how urban lighting design evolved to the current lighting systmes of today whether roads, facades, squares and other public enviornements. ![]() Since 400,000 BCE, mankind came to a realisation that light is an essential part of one’s everyday life. With the sun being the main source of natural light at the time, fire was the very first form of artificial light using combustible material to illuminate caves or shelters while at the same time used as means for survival. Eventually terra cotta lamps replaced these hand held light sources which are said to be created by the Greeks during the 7th Century BC. The design of the lamp changed yet is always worked in the same way by burning the fuel and controlling it. As the years went by candles were invented along with kerosene lamps yet it would be years later for the big breakthrough. Moving forward to the late 1700’s William Murdoch was also interested in this phenomenon and started to experiment with gas lighting. This kind of lighting was a breakthrough during the Victorian Era which would change the idea of artificial lighting for the years to come. Murdoch’s discovery was first installed in Pall Mall in the early 1800’s and also became the main source to light up main cities, roads, squares and also by those would could afford it in their private homes. Today, London is one of the last places where one can still find over 1,000 gas lamps along the roads. In recent years an article was published on how five lamplighters keep these light sources up and running however compared to modern systems they are not efficient at all. A few years later Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison invented the incandescent lamp , and it was around that time when the prices for gas lighting dropped drastically. Edison in particular was inspired by the gas lighting system and came up with multiple inventions allowing for options rather than just one. There were a number of inventors of this bulb but the main two remain the one’s mentioned since their invention was the most effective and economical. The incandescent bulb was the most common in those day, however today we know that it is the least energy efficient. Despite this it is still inexpensive and the options are endless. By the 1900’s lighting design had become common in most spaces since by that time there were various options of different styles to choose from. One well known example was the Tiffany Lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany which was a handmade stained glass lamp typically portraying floral designs. This lamp was considered as a statement for the art Art Nouveau movement. It was around the same time when Peter Cooper Hewitt invented the Fluorescent lamp, also called the mercury-vapor lamp since it produced light with the use of electric current passing through mercury vapor. Despite being more efficient than the previous systems not a lot of people went for this option due to its colour output. As the 20th century approached the designs started to change to present a more modern style; Straight lines, bold forms and colours were prominent. A revolutionary piece was the Anglepoise lamp by George Carwardine which surprisingly was never into the design industry. Designers and engineers started to realise that lighting not only have impact on our daily lives but also on the energy consumed within our surroundings. This fact raised even more interest in the development of lighting systems and eventually led to the current lighting systems we have today. During the late 1990’s LED lighting systems were discovered and there was a clear indication that these were going to be better than the incandescent and compact fluorescent lighting systems of the past. LEDs is a short term for light–emitting diodes which are semiconductor devices that produce visible light when electrical currents pass through them. They are used for both interior and exterior purposes due to their high efficiency, long lasting nature, environmental friendliness and for being very controllable. Available in any shape and colour imaginable, LEDs can be used in almost any kind of environment. Besides the modernisation of the light bulb itself , new technology of how to control lighting systmes came about, including remote monitoring, smart asset management and smart dimming especially for urban lighting where large areas of land need to be lit. As mention previously, the light bulb was not created by a single person but was improved by many designers throughout the years eventually leading to the current lighting systems that we opt for today. From all the listed examples of the development of artificial light, electric lighting remains till this day the most popular. Only very recently, in Malta there was an increase in the interest to take lighting seriously when designing our surroundings. Although we most definitely cannot predict how the lighting industry will be in the future, we can always hope and keep improving on the current excellent systems that already exist to move forward. References
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Dissertation TitleThe Beautification of the Nadur Historical Centre by means of holistic lighting design Archives
April 2017
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