Light is an essential element to perceive architecture and to live and work in buildings. Therefore architects, lighting designers, teachers, and researchers have written inspirational books about light. They have shared their valuable theories and turned their experience into guidelines to improve daylight design and the art of illumination.
This collection offers a useful source of the best lighting design books for students, professionals, and academics. The book list is grouped into categories: Daylight, illumination, urban lighting, media facades, landscape lighting, light collections, culture, monography, history, stage lighting, and light art. In each section, the volumes appear in alphabetical order with recent books in the beginning followed by classic publications. Discover fascinating publications that will enlighten your perception and understanding of light and space.
Daylight
Daylighting and Integrated Lighting Design / Christopher Meek, Kevin van den Wymelenberg
The compact and clear structure presents a perfect source to understand the fundamentals and the application of daylighting. Topics like geometrical and material relationships, specific directives rules-of-thumb, instructions for ensuring visual comfort and electrical lighting integration belong to the essentials path to reduce the energy impact of buildings.
Daylighting and Lighting Under a Nordic Sky / Marie-Claude Dubois, Malin Alenius, Iason Bournas, Niko Gentile
The special situation of daylight under the Nordic sky – with its weak intensity in the winter and low sun angles in the summer – demands careful study. This book provides essential knowledge and background to students and practicing professionals who wish to tackle the challenging endeavor of illuminating buildings under a Nordic sky using daylight as the main ambient light source, supplemented by energy-efficient electric lighting.
Daylighting Handbook I + II / Christoph Reinhart
Although Christoph Reinhart has a remarkable line of experiences with daylight simulation, this book is far more than a guide to the digital design process. Information like seasonal changes, essential shading devices are added with practice orientated comments. The first volume is organized into two parts, "Fundamentals" and "Designing with the Sun". The second volume consists of eight chapters divided into two parts, "Daylight Simulations" and "Dynamic Facades."
Daylighting: Architecture and Lighting Design / Peter Tregenza, Michael Wilson
The clear structure from basic criteria for good daylighting, building forms, standards up to ways to collect and calculate daylight covers all necessary fundamentals of daylighting in architecture and urban planning. The authors have created a useful reference book for architects, lighting specialist and students.
Effective Daylighting with High-Performance Facades: Emerging Design Practices / Kyle Konis, Stephen Selkowitz
This daylight publication is targeted at a professional readership of experienced architects and facade engineers as well as advanced students. The authors introduce simulation-based design workflows, innovative daylighting system and case studies for low and net-zero energy solutions.
Illuminating (Living Concepts) / Michelle Corrodi, Klaus Spechtenhauser
In contrast to many daylight books dealing with office spaces, this volume focuses on housing. With the workplace increasingly being shifted into the home this publication deserves attention. The authors start with natural light for modern living and introduce lighting technology as well as lighting qualities. Case studies by eleven architects share a pronounced awareness for natural light at the end of the book.
The Architecture of Natural Light / Henry Plummer
Henry Plummer combines a poetic analysis with impressive photos and thereby reveals the various aspects of natural light. His larger perspective includes art history, film and literature to explore qualities like evanescence, atomization, and luminescence. Fifty case studies from around the world illustrate his phenomenological approach, including buildings by Tadao Ando, Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas and Toyo Ito, among others.
The Art of Architectural Daylighting / Mary Guzowski
What distinguishes this book from other daylighting books is its approach to start the observations of natural light with case studies. 12 buildings are examined with technical diagrams featuring architects including Renzo Piano, David Chipperfield and Steven Holl. Mary Guzowski begins with the choreography and atmosphere of daylight and covers the aspects of materials and integration into architecture as well.
The Secret of the Shadow: Light and Shadow in Architecture / Deutsches Architektur Museum
While most books draw the attention to light, these authors decided to address the aspect of shadow. The first chapters describe for example the phenomena of shadow, the link to art history, how to draw shadows and photographing shadows in La Tourette. The last section is dedicated to 50 shadow seekers from architects around the world explaining the importance of shadows in contemporary architectural concepts.
Zenithal Light / Elias Torres
Elias Torres shares in this book hundreds of photos which he collected over years of research and travel. His observations about light from above are carefully classified in groups for domes, skylights, towers and many more. The image credits point out the main idea and are complemented by short introductions to the chapters. The book offers a great source of inspiration with the international view through the history of architecture.
Daylight Performance of Buildings / Marc Fontoynont
The comprehensive analysis of 60 cases studies from small to large and new to old buildings is the reason why many academics regard this publication as a classic and essential book illustrating the complexity of daylighting. The book summarizes a three-year monitoring campaign throughout Europe. Marc Fontoynont explains each project with features and main lesson as well as post-occupancy evaluation.
Light and Color in the Outdoors / Marcel Minnaert
This classic book written by the Dutch astronomer Marcel Minnaert invites the reader to explore the various phenomena of daylight. No matter if he describes the dapples beneath trees on a sunny day, rainbows, sky, sun, moon or stars, his tour of nature represents a compelling observation with technical insights and curious examinations to sharpen our perception of light and color in nature.
Louis I. Kahn: Light and Space / Urs Buttiker
Urs Buttiker analyses carefully one of the masters of light: Louis I. Kahn. The strength of his work lies in enabling an easy comparison with pictograms which he also sorted chronologically. Thereby the reader could identify the development of various daylight approaches: Ceiling-framed windows, lookout slots, variations of brise soleils, and a variety of skylights.
Sunlighting as Formgiver / William M.C. Lam
William M.C. Lam's book about sunlighting belongs to the classic literature about daylight. Clear explanation, informative graphics, candid criticism of buildings, many case studies characterize this publication, which links theoretical insights with pragmatic guidelines for good daylight design. A free download for the book is available here.
Illumination
Architectural Lighting Design / Gary Steffy
Available already as third edition, Gary Steffy's book collects the essential information for architectural lighting design in a comprehensive and practice-oriented way. The clearly structured book is an excellent learning resource for students and for professionals. Design goals and criteria build the basics before technical parts like luminaires and controls are explained.
Architectural Lighting: Designing with Light and Space / Hervé Descottes, Cecilia Ramos
The compact framework for understanding lighting in the built environment gives the reader an excellent introduction to visual principles of light and the relevant parameters. The case studies offer useful insights into projects such as the High Line in New York or the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki with tables for illuminance levels, color temperature and lighting distribution.
Designing With Light: The Art, Science and Practice of Architectural Lighting Design / Jason Livingston
This book offers a systematic and clear way to understand light and learn lighting design for students and professionals. The comprehensive book covers fundamentals concerning perception and technology, but also contains information about daylight, lighting controls, energy codes as well as light and health.
Detail in Contemporary Lighting Design / Jill Entwistle
The specialty of Jill Entwistle's book is the love for details. While many books mainly feature stunning photos, this publication offers a look behind the scene with detailed plans to demonstrate the lighting technology involved. The explanatory text lead from the original brief to the design concept - a valuable resource for all who do not want to miss details beside finding inspiration.
Fundamentals of Architectural Lighting / Samuel Mills
The black and white illustrations offer architecture and interior design students a graphic guideline to learn the use of lighting for interior spaces. Samuel Mills covers all basics from the distribution of light in spaces, design strategies, calculations up to technical issues and lighting applications.
Fundamentals of Lighting / Susan M. Winchip
The book is a useful resource for interior design students to understand the principles of lighting and the lighting design process. The clear structure enables a good orientation. A list of objectives invites the students to check the new learned content. In addition, a "One-Minute Study Guide" for each chapter can help you to ensure that new insights do not get lost.
Human Factors in Lighting / Peter Robert Boyce
Peter Boyce is a distinguished lighting expert and publishes in this textbook a comprehensive overview of the science of lighting and its relevance to lighting practice. Fundamentals like metrics and visual systems build the basis for general topics such as lighting and work, visual discomfort, and perception of spaces. The last section covers special issues like light for pedestrians, elderly people, health and light pollution.
IESNA Lighting Handbook / David L. Dilaura, Kevin W. Houser, Richard G. Mistrick, Gary R. Steffy
The volume with more than 1000 pages is an essential and comprehensive knowledge reference for lighting written by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. The book contains light level criteria for various situations from circulation areas, offices up to museums. In addition, it contains many useful information such as the effects of light on human health, human's perception of light as they age and light pollution.
Light for Art's Sake: Lighting for Artworks and Museum Displays / Christopher Cuttle
Christopher Cuttle's book is a valuable basis for museum and art gallery designers. He offers comprehensive information ranging from light-induced damage to artworks, daylight and electric lighting typologies up to control technologies. His experience in teaching and his numerous visits to worldwide museums ensure that the information is well structured and linked to practice.
Light Perspectives between Culture and Technology / Martin Krautter, Thomas Schielke
This book is arranged in three sections covering the actual qualities of light, the relationship between light and space and, finally, the dimension of light as it relates to culture. In each of the 21 chapters, paired terms explore the respective design dimension of light, like brilliance and glare, vertical and horizontal, and neutral and expressive. Each pair of terms begins with the cultural context, moves on to didactic material on perception, lighting design and concludes with case studies.
Lighting Design Basics / Mark Karlen, Christina Spangler, James R. Benya
This volume is a useful guide for lighting design which provides a clear and practical orientation. The book consists of four segments: Lighting basics, the design process, application and professional skills. Solutions for more than 25 case studies help the readers to design plans and to work on installations details. The design scenarios include residential, commercial, healthcare, education and hospitality settings.
Lighting Design: A Perception-Based Approach / Christopher Cuttle
Christopher Cuttle's strength lies in explaining vision and perception and how these findings can be applied to architectural spaces. His design concept is different to notions which focus on visual tasks and efficient performance or decorative lighting. Cuttle's alternative lighting strategy looks for a balance of brightness in order to achieve for example colorfulness or sharpness. Spreadsheets for calculations relate the attributes to photometric quantities.
Lighting for Interior Design / Malcolm Innes
Malcom Innes has created a detailed guide for students to develop skills to successfully design lighting for interiors. As a designer and educator, he links technical issues with design principles in a compelling way. Specially created diagrams and illustrations as well as case studies facilitate the learning experience. Plans and drawings explain how to visualize lighting schemes.
Made of Light: The Art of Light and Architecture / Anthony Tischhauser, Mark Major, Jonathan Speirs
The British lighting designers Jonathan Speirs and Mark Major take the readers to an inspiring journey across the qualities of light and illustrate the emotional reactions by light. The fresh graphic design combines noteworthy historical buildings with projects of their own design studio. Drawings and sketches provide some insights in the visual communication of illumination.
The Architecture of Light / Sage Russell
That Sage Russell is an experienced instructor for lighting design is visible in the well-organized structure and many didactic illustrations. The 28 chapters are clustered in three segments: fundamentals, designing light, planning details from luminaires to control systems. Russell's intention is not to create lighting for technical experts, but rather providing a working familiarity of the power and effect of light.
The Design of Lighting / Peter Tregenza, David Loe
The two British authors with a lot of experience in teaching and research convince with a very pleasant combination of text, graphic illustrations and photos. The carefully selected material and the clear structure makes this guidebook an interesting companion to learn lighting regarding design, perception, technology and application.
You Say Light - I Think Shadow / Sandra Praun, Aleksandra Stratimirovic
In order to find an answer to the simple but complex issue "what is light" Sandra Praun and Aleksandra Stratimirovic reached out to 109 light experts. The result is a collection of poetic and personal thoughts, visions and memories about light and shadow, which are individually presented with graphic elements and typography.
Architectural Lighting Graphics / John E. Flynn and Samuel M. Mills.
John Flynn and Samuel Mills created a fundamental introduction to architectural lighting in the 1960s. The extraordinary quality of this publication lies in the systematic approach to understand technology and design. Numerous graphics and photos illustrate clearly how lighting can be properly integrated into architecture. Even if some technical sections are not up to date, the informative graphics are definitely worth studying to understand illuminating interior and exterior spaces.
Catching the Light / Arthur Zajonc
The physicist Arthur Zajonc takes the reader to an epic journey into history, mythology, religion, science and painting. Looking for the connection between the outer light of nature and the inner light of the human spirit he explains how the understanding of light has changed from the Greeks to impressionist art up to modern quantum physics. An entertaining and informative path to discover light.
Handbook of Lighting / Rüdiger Ganslandt, Harald Hofmann
This handbook offers a summary of fundamental principles and practice of architectural lighting. It is useful for students to understand lighting technology and lighting design concepts in a systematic way. Designers receive helpful orientation based on recommendations from foyers, restaurants up to museums. The outstanding layout with remarkable illustrations is the result of the collaboration with the graphic designer Otl Aicher. A free download for the book is available here.
Light Revealing Architecture / Marietta S. Millet
Marietta S. Millet is interested in relationships and examines architecture from ancient to modern buildings. She is interested in combinations like qualitative versus quantitative aspects, daylight versus electric lighting as well as poetic versus practical approaches. Millet addresses in her inspiring book the aspects of light revealing experience, form, space and meaning.
Light, Color and Environment / Faber Birren
This classic resource by Faber Birren links light with color and explains the biological and psychological aspects. He addresses how light contributes to appearance and what is good vision lighting. His chapter about psychic lighting highlights the strong emotional character and envisions how psychic lighting could even enter conservative environments like offices and schools.
Light: The Shape of Space: Designing with Space and Light / Lou Michel
This book sharpens the mind for the perception for light. Understanding the effects of light and their influence on seeing the relation of form and space lay the foundation for the analysis of architectural spaces. Guidelines for lighting the spatial envelope and connecting spaces build a link to common design tasks. Lou Michel's extensive teaching experience is perceptible in the systematic structure of the book supported by informative illustrations.
Perception and Lighting as Formgivers for Architecture / William M.C. Lam
The book is well known for its overview of visual perception and human needs relating to architectural lighting design. The perspective of perceptual psychology helps to understand how light influences what we look at and how the context is critical if we perceive bright light as sparkle or glare. Case studies link the principles to practice at the end of the book. William Lam's merit lie in the attitude to look beyond functional needs and to define qualitative criteria for architectural lighting. A free download for the book is available here.
Urban Lighting
Light for Cities / Ulrike Brandi, Christoph Geissmar-Brandi
The systematically organized guide helps to develop urban lighting projects in a better way. The process is explained from the concept development with the players and their objectives, efficiency considerations up to the implementation. The narrative of typologies starts with a distant view by cars via roads and bridges and leads to the closer perspective by pedestrians with squares, boulevards and shop windows. Practical examples with master plans for completed schemes link theory to practice.
Light pollution, a global discussion / Nona Schulte-Römer, Etta Dannemann, Josiane Meier
This publication summarizes an international survey from 36 countries about the environmental impact of outdoor lighting. Academics, scientists, dark-sky advocates and other experts identify challenges for solving light pollution. Controversial questions like the best correlated color temperature for LED street lighting are discussed in a cultural and energy-efficient context. A free download for the eBook is available here.
Light Zone City: Light Planning in the Urban Context / Christa van Santen
Christa von Santen addresses the possibilities and challenges of lighting the urban environment and explains this with cases studies and many photos including comparisons of daytime and nighttime atmospheres. She points out that exterior illumination has become a marketing tool for cities and raises awareness to the problem when cities resemble a theatrical scenery.
SuperLux: Smart Light Art, Design & Architecture for Cities / Davina Jackson
The book’s three main sections focus on projects that use light to animate architecture and media screens, new forms of lighting in industrial zones and public areas, and interactive installations in urban spaces. The lavishly illustrated book shows how digital systems have defined lighting urban environments like buildings, bridges, streets and plazas. Guest essays explain selected topics such as sustainability, aesthetics and branding more in detail.
The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light / Paul Bogard
Paul Bogard succeeds in a convincing way to raise awareness for the dark night sky. He connects in an elegant way personal narrative, natural history and science to show how we lost darkness with electrical lighting and how we can reduce brightness to find back to the starlit sky. His tour - mainly through the United States - presents an enjoyable and informative source to explore the night.
Urban Lighting for People: Evidence-Based Lighting Design for the Built Environment / Navaz Davoudian
The social dimension of urban lighting and the post-project evaluation are noteworthy aspects in this book which are not so often covered by other publications. Projects like The Millennium Bridge or Leicester Square in London are clearly illustrated with plans and simulations and contribute to closing the gap between theory and practice.
Urban Lighting, Light Pollution and Society / Josiane Meier, Uta Hasenöhrl, Katharina Krause, Merle Pottharst
The compilation of scientific discussion on urban lighting and light pollution brings a wide variety of disciplines together. The first part addresses the perception and practices like light festivals. The second part explains the challenges with regulations to dim the night down. The last part talks about economic dimensions of night-time illumination.
Media Facades
Media Facades / Matthias Hank Haeusler
This book offers an excellent overview of media facades. 30 international projects are classified in seven categories with many photos: projection facades, rear projection facades, window raster animation, display facades, illuminated facades, mechanical and voxel facades. Essays about characteristics of media facades and forms of content provide an inspiring overview. Newer trends can be explored in Haeusler's sequel book "New Media Facades: A global survey".
The Building as Screen: A History, Theory, and Practice of Massive Media / Dave Colangelo
A comprehensive line of theories explains aspects like monumentality, accelerated rituals of media in the urban context. David Colangelo's historical interest is visible in his analysis of some early moving images in public spaces. A chapter about the Empire State Building reveals the role of color and data visualization. The book concludes with a discussion about the importance and forms of curating media facades.
The Media City / Scott McQuire
Scott McQuire has created a remarkable historical analysis towards the media city. He connects many interesting pathways for understanding the new ways of social experiences. His writing style grants a fresh and clear perspective to the thresholds of the media city, and its impact on public and private spaces.
The Routledge Companion to Urban Media and Communication / Zlatan Krajina, Deborah Stevenson
The book brings together diverse perspectives from a large group of authors. The essays are clustered in four categories: Trajectories of mediated urbanity, media as urban infrastructure, media cities as sites of creative urbanism and daily life in mediated cities. In this way it offers a resource for cultural studies and understanding the multiple dimensions of urban media.
Landscape Lighting
Lighting the Landscape. Art, Design, Technologies / Roger Narboni
The French lighting designer Roger Narboni shows in his book how nocturnal landscape can be created. The introduction offers a general overview and includes a highly differentiated typology ranging from gardens to canals, mountains up to desert landscapes. The second section leads to 21 international case-studies from parks to mining landscapes.
The Landscape Lighting Book / Janet Lennox Moyer
The comprehensive hands-on guide takes the designer through the complete process from the design to construction phase up to maintenance. The second section covers important technical issues like light sources, luminaires, corrosion, controls and wiring. The last section provides a useful and in-depth orientation for illuminating walkways, sculptures, facades and water features. Photos and drawings illustrate the various design possibilities clearly and even reveal the light effects for different seasons.
The Original Garden Lighting Book / Frank B. Nightingale
Frank B. Nightingale is regarded as a pioneer of garden lighting. He summarized his experience in the book "Garden Lighting" in 1958. Mark Carlson and Michael Gambino republished his book with a nearly complete copy of the original but added comments and photographs to highlight the relevance for contemporary design. The hands-on guidelines for lighting for depth, mystery with moon-light effect or water lighting are still valid today.
Light Collections
1000 Lights / Charlotte J. Fiell, Peter Fiell
Presented chronologically by decades Charlotte and Peter Fiell present the 20th century's most interesting luminaires from Tiffany's beautiful leaded-glass shades to completely outrageous designs from the late 1960s and 1970s to the latest high-tech LED lamps. A great reference for all major styles including Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern Movement, De Stijl, Postwar, Pop, Postmodern and Contemporary.
Bright / Clare Lowther, Sarah de Boer-Schultz
Innovative international projects from a commercial and cultural context show the creative use of light. Each designer or design company is portrayed on eight pages featuring both stunning photography and text. Bright 2 is divided into three chapters —dynamic, interactive and static. An inspiring source to discuss the future of light and architecture.
Light in Architecture / Chris van Uffelen
More than 120 projects by architects and designers all around the world reveal how daylight and electric lighting define architecture. The book is structured in moods: Flowing Mood, Continuous Ambience, Experimental Design, Rhythmic Character. Impressive photos, project facts and a short description explain each project and the use of light.
Lightning Culture
Nordic Light: Modern Scandinavian Architecture / Henry Plummer
The stunning photos of Nordic churches, libraries, museum and government buildings draw the reader to outstanding examples of how daylight defines the appearance of architecture. Plummer's poetic writing language focuses on the phenomena and how we see and experience the modulation by the sun. Inspiring essays about whiteness, rhythm, tranquility, diffusion and darkness reveal the different daylight concepts in modern Scandinavian architecture.
In Praise of Shadows / Junichiro Tanizaki
Tanizaki's outstanding essay presents an essential guide for Western cultures to understand traditional Japanese aesthetic regarding darkness. While the West searches for light and clarity, people in Japan have developed a culture with sophisticated materials and surfaces: Shoji walls to soften the bright daylight, reflectance on lacquerware illuminated by candlelight or grey bowls for white rice for achieving a harmonic balance.
Light in Japanese Architecture / Henry Plummer
Visiting all projects in Japan personally and photographing them is one of the reasons why the observations show an extraordinary sensitivity for traditional and modern buildings. Chapter titles like "autumn gold", "woven air" or "watery luster" signal that Plummer is interested in the various nuances which daylight can offer. His unique writing style with metaphors and moods, completed with lavishly photo sequences, turn this book into a valuable source to understand Japanese architecture.
Monography
Licht Kunst Licht: Lighting Design for Architecture / Andreas Schulz
This is the fourth volume of the Berlin and Bonn based lighting design office "Licht Kunst Licht" celebrating their 25th anniversary. Large impressive architectural photography dominates the layout of the book. A strong focus on cultural buildings and renovations is visible in several museum projects.
Light Talk 1 + 2 / Martin Klaasen
For a full year Martin Klaasen blogged about his working experiences on a daily basis and compiled his observations in a book. A great source to receive a behind the scene perspective of a professional lighting designer. His second volume collects more than 16 years of writing a column for a lighting magazine. The collection reveals how the lighting industry and the lighting design profession has changed. Personal notes and background information explain the context of the articles.
Lighting Design and Process / OVI - Office for Visual Interaction
The well-designed book with many stunning images, sketches, and graphics, is a fascinating look into the design process of the New York based firm Office for Visual Interaction (OVI). The impressive portfolio shows how light is treated as a primary architectural component. Initial concept sketches, advanced computer models and drawings illustrate vividly the technical challenges in their mission.
Lighting Design for Urban Environments and Architecture / Kaoru Mende, Lighting Planners Associates Inc.
Kaoru Mende and the group Lighting Planners Associates are a renowned lighting specialist in Japan. Short descriptions enable a brief introduction to each project ranging from museums, conference centers to public buildings and urban lighting. The strength of the book lies in the rich imagery with photos, drawings and concept illustrations.
The Structure of Light: Richard Kelly and the Illumination of Modern Architecture / Dietrich Neumann
The book about Richard Kelly, the unsung master behind modern architecture's greatest buildings, tells the story of a career from theatre to architecture. Detailed lighting analyses of iconic buildings like Philip Johnson's Glass House, Louis Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum or Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building complete his biography and chronology of works.
Ultimate Lighting Design / Hervé Descottes
Hervé Descottes, founder of the renowned lighting design firm L'Observatoire International, collaborates with star architects like Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Meier or Steven Holl. That each project is explained very briefly is compensated by the fact that Descottes shares a vast collection of projects ranging from museum via concert halls and restaurants to outdoor lighting. Opulent illustrations with sketches, drawings, simulations and photos grants also insights into the visual language of the studio.
Lightning History
Architecture of the Night: The Illuminated Building / Dietrich Neumann, Kermit Swiler Champa
As a Professor of Architectural History Dietrich Neumann compiled a historical overview of architectural lighting with a group of authors. The first part includes essays about Joachim Teichmüller's term "Lichtarchitektur" (light architecture), the interplay of light and color as well as the nocturnal image of the United States. The generous illustrations with photos and contemporary postcards capture exterior building illumination from 1900 to 2000.
Cities of Light. Two Centuries of Urban Illumination / Sandy Isenstadt, Margaret Maile Petty and Dietrich Neumann
The book offers a geographical approach by cities with written chapters by respected scholars and practitioners. The history of urban illumination offers an extensive international view with cities like Tokyo, Mumbai, Paris, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires or Los Angeles. The essays reveal the different developments of outdoor lighting in a global context.
Electric Light: An Architectural History / Sandy Isenstadt
For people interested in history, Sandy Isenstadt's book shares valuable observations about how technology influenced society, art and architecture. Five chapters open insights in specific topics like how the roving cone of automotive headlights changed our perception, lighting of factories enhanced productivity, or light turned Times Square into a commercial space.
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century / Wolfgang Schivelbusch
Wolfgang Schivelbusch fascinates with his sharp view of details and revealing the social and cultural impact of early lighting. Even though the nineteenth century seems to be far away, the stories he discovered are lively narrated and discuss aspects like the political symbolism of streetlamps, the atmosphere of the theatre stage or the rise of nightlife and shopwindows.
Stage Lighting
Light Fantastic: The Art and Design of Stage Lighting / Max Keller
Max Keller links his impressive stage lighting practice with his structured approach in education for his book. The first chapters offer inspiration with a look at light and color for stage design. The focus on emotion is useful for a transfer to architectural interior spaces. After an introduction to light sources, luminaires and controls, Keller explains lighting concepts for different kinds of plays, luminaire aiming and the working process at the theater.
Stage Lighting Design: The Art, The Craft, The Life / Richard Pilbrow
The book by the British stage lighting designer Richard Pilbrow is an inspiration and guideline to discover how light creates emotion. Basic design principles, the history of stage lighting, interviews with lighting designers and a section about the technical dimension are illustrated with many black and white and also some color photos.
A Method of Lighting the Stage / Stanley McCandless
Stanlay McCandless' book is a classic guide for stage lighting. He started with a degree in architecture and made a career in theatrical lighting. Learning how to illuminate a stage with the right intensity, color, distribution and using the background for an impressive atmosphere is very useful for architects when projects requires emotion to overcome functionality.
The Magic of Light: The Craft and Career of Jean Rosenthal, Pioneer in Lighting for the Modern Stage / Jean Rosenthal, Lael Wertenbaker
This is one of the few early books written by a woman in lighting design. Jean Rosenthal collaborated with Martha Graham and worked on numerous shows for the Broadway or for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. "Magic of light" begins with Rosenthal autobiography and continues with the history of lighting and methods for plays.
Light Art
James Turrell: A Retrospective / Michael Govan, Christine Y. Kim
The comprehensive volume appeared in the context of the large James Turrell retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Early works like his immaterial glowing wall installations, the contemplative sky spaces up to his later monumental Roden Crater project are featured. His Quaker environment, experiencing aviation and learning science describe the factors which influence Turrell's approach to light. The beauty of the book derives from models, plans, drawings and the impressive photos by Florian Holzherr.
Krzysztof Wodiczko / Duncan McCorquodale
That Krzysztof Wodiczko has a high interest in social responsibility and urban environment becomes obvious in his video projections transforming facades and memorials into temporary spaces for critical reflection and public protest. The publication offers a comprehensive collection of his public projections and other works with essays by the artist and art critics.
Olafur Eliasson: Experience / Michelle Kuo, Olafur Eliasson
Turning London's Tate Modern turbine hall into a space for enjoying a simulated sun, using color-effect filter glass to animate the facade at the Harpa Concert & Conference Centre in Reykjavik or playing with reflections at the waterfall in Paris shows how Ólafur Elíasson's work is linked to architecture and landscape design. Essays, interviews and magnificent images cover three decades of his creative work.
Yann Kersalé: Light for Landmarks / Jean-Paul Curnier, Henri-Pierre Jeudy, Monique Sicard
The French light artist Yann Kersalé has illuminated urban landmarks like the Sony Center in Berlin, the Lyon Opera and collaborated with architects like Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au and Frank Gehry. The richly illustrated book documents his work in a comprehensive way and is an inspiration for the intersection of art and architecture.
The art of light and space / Jan Butterfield
The art critic Jan Butterfield documents the history of light art with a diverse collection of careers: Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Douglas Wheler, Bruce Naumann are among the innovative artists which are valued with separate chapters. Butterfield's insightful observations, interviews, photos and plans lead to a rich and fascinating overview.
Academic journals
While lighting books are often comprehensive resources for various aspects of a topic and require quite some time to publication, academic journals offer better insights on specific contemporary lighting design issues from daylight to lighting technology. Journal papers provide a useful source for students to enrich their master thesis projects or for academics to keep track of the latest research results. "Energy and Buildings", "Building and Environment", "Solar Energy" and "Journal of Daylighting" are leading journals that include among other topics daylight design. Regarding lighting in general "Leukos" and "Lighting Research and Technology" represent the most prominent journals.
Light matters, a column on light and space, is written by Dr. Thomas Schielke. Based in Germany, he is fascinated by architectural lighting and works as an editor for the lighting company ERCO. He has published numerous articles and co-authored the books “Light Perspectives” and “SuperLux”. For more information check ERCO, Arclighting, or follow him @arcspaces.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on September 01, 2020.
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