Featured

Daylighting

Our daylighting design services range from general consulting on window performance and integration with electric lighting systems to computer-simulated analyses of specific daylight conditions, such as site overshadowing, annual overheating periods and worst-case-scenario sun exposure. We also develop specifications for shading devices and perform visualizations to anticipate qualitatively how daylight will impact the architecture at any given time of day. Through these analyses, our daylighting work addresses quantitative project objectives to meet energy code or light level requirements as well as overall intent for the architecture’s day-night composition.

Residence

The range of residential projects in our portfolio demonstrates our flexible, varied approach to residential lighting. Since we work on so many different housing types, from college dormitories and multi-unit affordable housing developments to high-end single family homes, we base our lighting design approach on the particular qualities of each project rather than apply a standard design to all of them.

Education

Our experience in many project types, such as landscape, workplace, hospitality and budget-focused projects, informs our educational portfolio. This includes not just schools and university buildings, but other projects that demonstrate our commitment to a broad interpretation of education. Interactive museum exhibits, educational light art and research-focused community engagement projects all encourage various forms of learning and promote interdisciplinary collaboration.

Budget

Our experience working on projects with strict budget limitations has led us to streamline our budget management process. To ensure that projects satisfy cost limitations without compromising design quality, we present anticipated lighting hardware costs alongside design proposals in every project phase, and develop product specifications that support competitive bidding and leverage economies of scale. We also take into account the long-term costs of lighting equipment operation and maintenance, with the understanding that budget-conscious lighting design must remain economical over time.

Workplace

The projects in our workplace portfolio give us opportunities to use light to foster collaboration and enhance company identity. Our familiarity with energy standards such ASHRAE, LEED and WELL bolsters our work on these projects, which often involve ambitious sustainability targets.

Hospitality

Our portfolio includes a range of hotels, inns, restaurants, bars, cafés and food halls. With a particular focus on enhancing the individual character of each of these spaces, our approach to hospitality projects draws on light’s capacity to foster conviviality and connection.

Light Art

Given the interdisciplinary nature of our design process, we are hesitant to distinguish too sharply between light art and lighting design. The way we approach each informs the other, and those approaches are always evolving. Our portfolio of work that specifically explores spatial and perceptual qualities of light as the primary subject includes gallery exhibitions, permanent sculptural installations, community engagement events and photographic studies.

Research

Our firm’s close connection to academia often leads us to consider our lighting design work in the context of our broader research interests. This research manifests in our design practice in various ways, from lectures and publications to advanced technical analyses. Our commitment to sharing our research interests with both the design community and the public at large leads us to participate in community engagement workshops to better understand how lighting affects people, and to seek out work that gives us the opportunity to rethink typical design processes.

Night Identity

Many of our more prominent urban projects involve establishing an intentional nighttime presence for the architecture in its context—what we refer to as the building’s night identity. Both interior and exterior lighting contribute to this effort. Interior lighting that is visible through windows or glass walls can suggest liveliness, a sense that activity is happening within the building, while exterior lighting can highlight facade features or illuminate adjacent sidewalks. Our night identity experience includes historic buildings (which often have strict exterior lighting requirements) as well as contemporary projects.

Landscape

We are committed to designing lighting for exterior spaces that encourages recreation and social interaction while remaining considerate to plant and animal habitats. Our landscape lighting portfolio includes parks and gardens as well as university campuses and urban streetscapes. Our design approach for these projects is determined by the spatial characteristics of each site and how it relates to its surroundings. In selecting exterior lighting equipment, we balance durability considerations with aesthetics, keeping in mind how it will appear in the landscape during the day.

Historic

The historic projects in our portfolio include many well-known structures whose architecture is central to the atmosphere of their surrounding cities and towns. These projects demonstrate our experience tackling the specific issues that arise when illuminating historic architecture with modern lighting equipment. We prioritize the detailing of all our lighting solutions to ensure that they will integrate with the historic fabric. Our consideration of the historic lighting intent of each space often leads to restoration and retrofitting of existing decorative light fixtures.

Focusing

Focusing a lighting system after installation involves aiming adjustable fixtures and adjusting effects using optical and glare control accessories to fine-tune lighting performance. A critical part of our process is to review the focusing goals with other team members, such as architects or exhibition designers, and refine the composition of light and shadow to ensure that the lighting supports the design or curatorial intent. Much of the focusing we do is for art exhibitions, for which our process also includes devising fixture layouts for flexible lighting systems and meeting conservation light level requirements where applicable.

Culture

Our firm is committed to supporting cultural organizations, particularly those that promote the arts and sciences. Our portfolio includes a wide range of these institutions, such as libraries, train stations, government buildings, theaters, aquariums, museums, galleries and other exhibit spaces. These projects provide us with valuable opportunities to support local communities through lighting design.

In Progress

A selection of projects that are in currently progress.

Featured

A selection of portfolio highlights spanning Flux Studio expertise.

Controls

Lighting controls—the coordination of light fixture dimming levels to support varying uses in a particular space—are an important factor in the success of our designs. Our process for developing lighting control strategies includes working with building owners and occupants to understand how they expect to use the space, then translating this information to lighting control system settings. We also manage lighting controls coordination across project teams, and ensure that building users are comfortable with operating the lighting control system after it is installed.

Signal Station North

April 07, 2021 in In Progress, Light Art, Research

Pages from 20_1001_SSN_Community Listening.jpg

Pages from 20_1001_SSN_Lighting Analysis.jpg

Pages from 20_1001_SSN_Lighting Analysis-2.jpg

Pages from 20_1001_SSN_Conceptual Recommendations-5.jpg

Lanvale-Charles perspective.jpg

SSN Flash_North Avenue Median-4.jpg

Baltimore, MD | In Progress

This Neighborhood Design Center initiative recruited several Baltimore design groups to develop proposals for lighting public spaces in the city’s Station North Arts District. Working alongside the NDC, PI.KL Architects, and Bruce Willen of Public Mechanics, we surveyed existing urban and lighting conditions in Station North and collated our findings with input from community members on their perceptions of light in the district. This led us to develop a set of urban lighting recommendations that aim to enliven the nighttime streetscape and address a range of aesthetic and practical concerns. Our work on this project bridges several of our areas of expertise, including light art, landscape lighting, and research.

Collaborators | Neighborhood Design Center, PI.KL Studio, Public Mechanics, Karl Connolly (Photographer), Bruce Willen (Photographer), Design process documents by Flux Studio Ltd

Links | Neighborhood Design Center - Signal Station North, @signalstationnorth

Recognition

Flash! A DIY Approach to Lighting the Public Realm, Presentation by Glenn Shrum and Merrell Hambleton at 2020 Maryland Arts Summit
2019 Neighborhood Lights Grant ($5,000), Baltimore Office of Promotion of Arts, for support of FLASH! a lighting event part of Light City Baltimore 2019, Flux Studio co-author with Neighborhood Design Center Signal Station North Hopes to Light Up the Neighborhood at Night
Flash: Signal Station North