Don't choose light by design

Yuichiro Noguchi
Aug 25
2 min read

Updated: Aug 26

Lighting is essential for living.

Among them, many of them, which are said to be masterpieces, have an outstanding presence as objects due to their beautiful shape.

However, all lighting inherently has a clear purpose of "illuminating something".

I think that lighting is often chosen from interior shops, showrooms, catalogs, etc., but when you actually put the lighting in the room, I think there are many people who have experienced that it was dimmer than they thought.

It is not just an object, but it is important to blend it well with the space while properly fulfilling the original role of lighting.

Each lighting has a clear purpose of "illuminating something", and if it is a pendant light, it illuminates the dining table, a small table lamp illuminates a cabinet or side table, and a floor lamp illuminates a corner of the room. I'll light it up.

Ceiling lights, which many people have been familiar with so far, have the purpose of lighting up and illuminating the entire room with one, but what if you place a pendant light in the same way?

If it is a lighting with a lot of light bulbs like a chandelier, it will illuminate the entire room brightly, but pendant lights like Luis Paulsen's PH5 in Denmark, which is famous among Nordic lighting, are directly below. It is suitable for illuminating things, but I am not good at illuminating the whole room brightly.

When using a pendant light that illuminates light directly below, lighting that plays an auxiliary role, such as floor lamps and table lamps that illuminate the surroundings of the room, is necessary. By combining them, the entire space is enveloped in balanced lights.

Of course, it is good to place lighting like a downlight on the ceiling, but if the light of the downlight hits the pendant light, the light of the pendant light will be drowned out.

In such a case, by placing lighting other than pendant lights in a lower position, the light of the pendant light will be brought out and the brightness of the entire room will be secured.

When choosing lighting in this way, it is important to first clarify where to install it and what you want to illuminate, and choose from the equipment that fits it, rather than choosing by appearance from the beginning.

By placing lights with each purpose in the room, not the appearance of the lighting equipment, it should be a space where you can feel the original beauty of the lights.