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SECTION 8 - AMENITY LIGHTING FOR BUILDINGS
Amenity lighting by way of illuminating interesting or beautiful buildings is increasingly considered a worthwhile investment for villages seeking to enhance their potential for tourism. It may also be valued as a means for generating a sense of local identity and pride and for bringing vitality to the village centre during the evening.
A combination of different types of lighting is usually involved, with street lights, wall-mounted floodlights, decorative porch lights, signs and lighting within shop windows all contributing to the overall effect. There is a wide choice of lighting products on the market, but care with siting, installation and maintenance is essential to mitigate the effect of the light and avoid light spill.
It is becoming common practice to use high pressure sodium of metal halide lamps for amenity lighting as these have better colour rendering properties. The practice of mounting lights on existing buildings will minimise the number of lighting columns along the street, although the process of obtaining permission from individual property owners may be time-consuming. The design of a co-ordinated scheme inevitably needs to be a flexible process, taking advantage of local opportunities and working around the inevitable constraints..
The Royal Fine Art Commission's Lighten our Darkness and the Guide to Good Urban Lighting published by CIBSE and the ILE contain much useful and relevant advice. They emphasise the need to balance light and shadow and to design lighting so that it enhances the architectural detail of the building rather than overwhelming it.
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