Interior Lighting for Designers

Wash Lights
Wash lightsare luminaires that provide an
even “wash” of relatively uniform brightness,
usually on a wall but occasionally on a ceil-
ing. In rooms of moderate size, walls are
often the major element in the field of view;
washing walls with light has properly become
a major technique in the practice of creative
illumination.
To minimize specular reflections near the
top of lighted vertical surfaces, a matte (dif-
fuse) finish is essential. Specular surfaces,
such as mirrors and highly polished marble,
cannot be lighted because the light received
on the surface is reflected down to the floor
and no impression of brightness is created.
Walls are lighted in two ways: (1) by
using a row of individual, asymmetric-distri-
bution luminaires placed parallel to the wall
at a distance of about one-third the height of
the wall, and with the individual units spaced
about the same distance apart from each
other as they are away from the wall; or (2)

by using a system of linear sources or, ide-

ally, closely spaced directional sources

mounted in a continuous “slot” adjacent to

the wall.

Asymmetric wall-washers

Asymmetricwall-washersare used for lighting

walls, sometimes to light artwork, and occa-

sionally to create ambient light in a space.

All asymmetric wall-washers use reflec-

tors or directional lamps or both, frequently

combined with lenses to spread the light

sideways and smooth the beam. They fall

into two categories: downlight/wall-washers

and reflector wall-washers.

Downlight/wall-washers. The combination

downlight/wall-washeris a special kind of

wall-washer. It consists of a parabolic, open-

reflector downlight with an added elliptical

reflector, sometimes called a “kicker” reflec-

tor (figure 12.19). This additional reflector

“kicks” light up toward the top of the wall,

LUMINAIRES

Figure 12.18Typical luminous ceiling.