Architectural Facade Lighting Design: The Definitive Guide

Architectural facade lighting is an art. Building facade lighting can make any building or structure glow in the dark. But only if the lighting technology follows the right standards. From the initial LED facade lighting design and effects simulation, to the selection and actual installation and placement of lamps. These will determine the success or failure of lighting design – whether the beauty and culture of the building can be improved after the baptism of light.

Facades of many buildings are beautiful and eye-catching. Unfortunately, if there is no outdoor facade lighting, once the night falls, people will not be able to appreciate the beauty of this building.

The exterior facade lighting is like another face of the building. At night, façade lighting makes the first impression in any building, lively or warm. So therefore you need to pay attention to its façade lighting.

If you want the building facade lighting design to give life and soul to the building, read on. This article will discuss standards, rules, and various considerations to help you light your building’s facade the right way.

architectural facade lighting

What is architectural facade lighting?

Architectural facade lighting complements the exterior of any building and structure.

Facade refers to the exterior of a building’s construction. And building facade lighting means highlighting the front part of the building, including walls, columns, doors and windows and other building structures.

In architectural design, the façade is the most important part. Why? Obviously, because people always see the exterior of the building first. People are more interested in approaching the building and exploring the interior of the building if they are impressed at first sight.

Although the façade design of many buildings is stunning, once the night falls, people will not be able to appreciate the beauty of the architectural design. The only way to break the shackles of darkness is to install well-designed lamps in buildings.

That’s why we have to design the lighting for the façade of the building. Now, building facade lighting design is more and more popular. Whether it is a commercial building, a theme park, or a home building, facade lighting plays an important role.

But the benefits don’t stop at the actual building itself. It extends all around. Believe it or not, a beautiful building can elevate its surroundings – make people want to come and see it.

Commercial Building facade lighting

3 reasons why building facade lighting is important

Facade lighting puts a coat on the building at night, making it a painting. This painting not only has aesthetic value, but also carries people’s emotions and thoughts. For example, when people who go home at night, the moment they see the lights of their own homes, their hearts are filled with warmth.

This highly graphic impression and emotional sustenance are the ultimate pursuit of our architectural lighting design.

There are many reasons why building facade lighting is important. It goes beyond aesthetics. Of course, the application of this lighting technology is to accentuate the character of the building. But you shouldn’t dwell on aesthetics. Lighting design is not just about giving the building an artistic feel.

Do you believe this is possible? of course.

You can think about it from the following three aspects.

Commercial Building facade lighting

Aesthetic

Everyone has a love for beauty. When we see a beautiful and comfortable light in the dark, it is like seeing a flower in the snow. Whenever we see beautiful things, there is always joy in our hearts. That moment is unforgettable. What happened at that moment was equally impressive. Therefore, if people can feel this beauty through building facade lighting, it will be a very meaningful thing.

When your audience looks at your building, you want them to feel something. With proper lighting, you can set the right mood for this. Then architecture becomes easier to attract people.

Function

Functionality is another reason why building facade lighting is important. We need lights in the dark, just as the human body needs eyes. Proper placement of lamps is a must for safety reasons. With ample lighting, accidents are less likely. This will make everyone in the space feel safer.

Green and sustainable

LED lights are a great choice for building outdoor facade lighting. Why？

Because LED facade lighting lamps have the characteristics of high brightness and good durability. At the same time, it is very energy efficient and environmentally friendly. You can use the outdoor facade lighting products – These LED lights are waterproof, wind and snow resistant and work perfectly even outdoors.

If you must work on building facade lighting, make sure to use LED fixtures, such as: led pixel light, led wall washer, led flood light, led linear light, etc.

LED facade lighting – LED Pixel Lights with Aluminum Profile Installation

2 important questions of architectural facade lighting

Before starting your lighting design, you need to figure out what you are most concerned about. Designing building facade lighting can be as simple as you have some basic concepts and a reasonable budget. Even if you get overwhelmed by the variety and applications of light fixtures, there are things you can do to stick to your priorities.

If you want your architectural lighting design and final application to be perfect, then you have to answer two questions first.

What to light up ?

First ask yourself, what exactly do you want to light up? Architectural facade lighting should not be overwhelming, on the contrary, we should try to avoid covering up the facade design of the building itself. Lights should selectively illuminate certain key areas without having to illuminate everything.

Is your building a commercial building? You may need to use led mesh screen to build a super large led display screen with thousands of square meters to illuminate the building wall. This is a popular trend now. You can also look at the lines and contours of commercial buildings, which may become the focal point of your lighting.

Do you want to highlight architectural culture? If so, Columns, spires, windows, and other design elements of a traditional building are likely to be focal points that you can highlight and illuminate.

You can also view the location of buildings and adjacent structures. What areas of the building would you like to light up? Where do you want people to see buildings and lights? If you’re going to light up a building’s façade, you need to make it highly visible.

How to light it up?

As you know, there are many LED light fixtures you can use to enhance the beauty of a building’s facade. How do you know which one to choose?

You go back to the original design intent. What kind of mood do you want to express? What function do you want to highlight the building? These all determine the style of architectural facade lighting. For example, home building lighting generally uses warm light, and the lighting looks warm and livable. The facade lighting of office buildings tends to be simple and fashionable, while the lighting of commercial buildings is often colorful.

These are important considerations that can help you decide how to light up your facade.

You also need to consider who will use the building. Where will they go? What do they need? If you can answer these questions, you’ll know to use the right lighting techniques.

No matter how you choose, Led facade lighting products are always the best option. Not only is it energy efficient, but it is also very durable. Outdoor LED lights are very long lasting, low maintenance and cost effective.

LED Wall Washer Light For Building Facade Lighting

Five options for architectural lighting technology

There are many popular outdoor lighting techniques. A good façade lighting designer can always use a mix of these lighting techniques in practical applications. Once you’re ready to design your building facade lighting, it’s best to start by understanding these techniques.

Here are 5 common techniques you can choose from.

Direct light

Direct lighting refers to LED lights installed on the facade surface. These LED point light source decorate building facades as individual units. You can also connect dots into lines to outline buildings. In fact, pixel led lights can be more powerful. Designers usually use it to form a super-sized LED display, which can display animations and advertisements through program control.

The representative product is DMX Pixel LED Light, typical applications such as: led media facade.

It’s important to remember that when you use Pixel Led lights, you must also consider your original design intent. Do not blindly pursue large-area lighting, excessive brightening. This is not recommended if your façade lighting is largely obscuring the building.

LED Pixel Light For Architectural Facade Lighting

Accent lighting

Accent lighting is often used to highlight details. This makes it ideal for openings, columns and similar architectural details in building facades. Accent lighting is a creative way to add visual appeal to your buildiing.

Of the many ways you can implement accent lighting, wall washing—or covering a wall in light—is a particularly interesting and common used technique. In addition to wall washing , there is a similar but unique accent lighting technology: wall grazing

- Wall Washing

Wall washing is a lighting technique in which vertical, indirect lighting is placed in the ceiling or floor at a wider distance from the wall.

LED Wall washer lighting means that the light flows on the wall like water, from top to bottom or from bottom to top, and distributes it as evenly as possible on the wall. Evenly illuminate the entire wall to hide imperfections and eliminate shadows. Emphasizes illuminating the entire building façade. As a result, the walls appear clear and bright. Wall washes are best used on walls with smooth, flat surfaces to reduce shadows.

Warm White LED Wall Washer Light For Architectural Building Facade Lighting

RGB LED Wall Washing Light For Building Facade Lighting

- Wall Grazing

Wall Grazing, on the other hand, is designed to have the opposite effect: to accentuate textured vertical surfaces by exaggerating shadows. With light on top of a stone or textured surface, wall grazing creates noticeable shadows that make the wall look more dramatic. If these surfaces are illuminated using wallwashing techniques, they will appear flat and “washed out” – which is hardly the look you want for a house’s limestone exterior, for example.

Unlike wall washing techniques that accentuate wall features, wall Grazing turns the wall itself into the focal point of the eye. Wall washing illuminate the wall more broadly, creating a clear, bright wall and highlighting anything on it, while wall grazing across the surface of the wall at narrow angles to accentuate the beauty of rough or interesting textures through shadows . Both techniques draw attention to walls and are a unique way to control how certain spaces or surfaces appear to the human eye.

Outdoor LED wall grazing lighting for the illumination of walls, landscaping, and architectural features

Outdoor LED wall lighting

Uniform illumination

Uniform lighting means you are projecting the same brightness on vertical surfaces. You can do this by using led flood lights. Outdoor led flood lights are not a must, but you can always prioritize using them.

No matter which outdoor led light fixture you plan to use, you can choose to place it above the building structure or on the ground. What’s more important is to adjust the distance of the light fixture from the surface it will illuminate for the best artistic effect.

You can include color changing led flood lights in your priority list. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed, especially when it comes to creating fantastic lighting for your theme park, it will be one of your best options.

Please note: In order to ensure the safety of construction, especially the safety of pedestrians and spectators, 12v led flood lights are often chosen for outdoor building facade lighting.

Color changing led flood lights

Local Lighting

This lighting technique focuses on highlighting parts of the vertical façade of the building structure. This could be columns, facades, roofs, windows, etc. With spot local lighting, you can not only accentuate features in structural details. You can also combine it with other lighting techniques used on the ground—such as those you use on garden paths, trees, grass, or other low-height landscaping decorations.

Hidden illumination

This is one of the most challenging of all landscape lighting techniques. The core tenet of hidden lighting is that the building is illuminated but the fixtures are invisible to the human eye. If you can do this correctly, you can achieve a great dramatic look in your building facade lighting applications.

Such as hidden LED strips. Hidden placement of LED light strips outlines the facade design of the building, making the building look safer at night.

The types of lamps we discuss here are just to give you a reference. In practice, you’ll have more options. You just need to follow the corresponding standards, you can try to come up with your own design.

LED Step Light / Hidden Illunination

3 General standards to be followed for Architectural facade lighting

There are 3 standards you can follow when planning your application for building facade lighting.

The first is the function of the building. This means that you must ensure that your architectural lighting design supports the function of the building. This also applies to specific parts or areas of the building (entryways, windows, etc.).

The second is the architectural culture represented by architecture. The goal here is to enhance the culture that the architectural design is trying to express through the correct use of light.

The third is Green Building. This means that the lighting design must be environmentally friendly, avoiding light pollution and energy waste.

Let’s take a deeper look at all of them.

The function of the building

It is necessary to ensure the overall function of the building. The basic requirement of lighting application is to illuminate the space and make people and objects move safely. At the same time, due to the different functions of the building itself, well-designed lighting can bring people a more specific and profound impression.

- Example 1 : Commercial Building / Architectural Facade Lighting

For example, if you’re lighting a commercial building, you want it to look prosperous so that it attracts a crowd. What should you do? Outdoor façade lighting is a great option. Exterior façade lighting helps the building stand out so that it can be seen from a distance. When done correctly, the building will exude a strong presence – people will be impressed just by seeing it. This is the power of building facade lighting.

LED Media Facade Lighting

- Example 2 : Residential facade lighting

If you’re lighting a residential facade, the approach is different. When you think of home, what do you want most? Yes, you want to be warm and comfortable. At this point, the lights you use should feel warm and intimate. Yellow lights would be a good choice. However, homes are often decorated with RGB lighting at Christmas.

Now you know, when what you want is different, so does the lighting design. Residential facade lighting is never static.

Residential Facade Lighting

If you are lighting an educational building such as a library or teaching facility, you may need to incorporate elegance and culture in your lighting technology. Hotel buildings, including independent restaurants, should exude light and relaxation at the same time. That way, people know it’s a place to rest and enjoy with peace of mind. For these two public building references, a mix of white and colored light would do the trick.

In addition to the general function of the building, façade lighting should also consider different areas. For example, entryways should have bright but not harsh lighting. The same goes for connecting paths around buildings and windows. Properly lighting these will ensure their use is convenient for everyone.

Architectural culture

The architectural design itself is derived from a certain culture, and the goal of our led facade lighting is to strengthen the expression of this culture. Before lighting design, you might as well think about whether this building represents a certain culture?

For example, the Forbidden City in Beijing uses lighting to highlight the grandeur of ancient palaces while showing people the beauty in the details. The sprawling palace complex is amazing when lit up at night. It perfectly demonstrates the vastness and genius of Chinese culture.

Beijing Forbidden City Ligghting By Using Exterior Building Lights

The oriental charm makes people yearn, and the Western religious culture also makes people surrender.Religious shrines can use lighting to highlight designs and structures that pay homage to religions, such as crosses and statues outside churches. Outdoor LED spotlights are perfect for this task.

LED Facade Lighting For a Church

Note that if a building has a unique structural design, we can use lighting to accentuate this unique element.

Facade lighting expresses architectural culture through different lighting techniques.

- Color

One of the ways is through color. The right hue will enhance the symbolism depicted by the building’s architecture. Conversely, cluttered tones can pull down the entire building’s design, making it vulgar and annoying.

- Uplighting

Uplighting is also a fun way to use it. During the day, natural light casts shadows on the building. But at night, the lighting effects reveal different features of the building.

- Brightness

You can also increase the brightness of your fixtures. This will make the building come alive. Emphasis is placed on the edges of the structure, accentuating the shape, sculpture and symmetry of the building as a whole.

Keep in mind that building facade lighting can mix different lighting techniques. Just make sure you don’t flood the building when you do this. Remember that lights should enhance what is already there. It shouldn’t steal the show.

Green Building

The environment always deserves our attention. The facade lighting of the exterior of the building must meet the standards of green, healthy and sustainable development. So be sure to check the regulations on light pollution before lighting your facade. Make sure your work does not negatively impact nearby pedestrians and residents.

Be wary of excessive lighting. Some irresponsible lighting designers and lighting providers may recommend that you install a large number of lighting fixtures on the facade of your building. NO! Reject the offer and think slowly, do you really need so many lights? Our advice is: Less is More. Excessive architectural lighting is not a good thing for us.

6 rules when designing the Architectural facade lights

The rules are what we must abide by when we design the exterior facade lighting of the building. It’s time to learn the right rules to ensure your lighting technology is applied correctly. Before you go into architectural lighting design, it is very important to understand the function and application of the building.

While you want the building to remain eye-catching and attractive in the dark, lighting design shouldn’t get in the way of its practical use. Architectural lighting design should complement the building structure and even support or enhance the functionality of the building.

With that in mind, here are the important rules you should follow.

It should observe safety precautions

You will read this more than once in this article. Why? We stress this point over and over again because life is far more important than the beauty of buildings. In architectural lighting, we must not put the cart before the horse. If you’ve noticed that in recent years, children have been electrocuted in public places, you’ll be saddened.

Building facade lighting should ensure electrical fire safety. You also shouldn’t use too many lights. Appropriate amount of lighting will not cause harm to the environment. Obtain a professional with training and licenses to install lights. This will ensure proper installation and compliance with community standards.

In addition,we should use colored LED lights carefully.Although we see applications of RGB led pixel light in many places – one of the common types of lamps used in outdoor facade lighting, colored lamps can sometimes be confusing. You know, the red and blue flashing lights can give the impression that it’s a police car or a fire truck. Be aware of your surroundings and make sure your light fixtures don’t pose a hazard.

It should comply with regulations

Facade lighting involves external lighting, so you should be aware of local laws and regulations to ensure that your building’s façade lighting design complies with the regulations of your community. For example, if you plan to light the exterior of a mall, you’ll want to make sure it meets nearby brightness limits — if any. Electricity usage may also be limited, you will need to check with the authorities for details.

LED facade lighting products are recommended by various countries. It is energy-saving and environmentally friendly, avoids energy waste, and only needs a small amount of electricity to light up a building. If you’re on the cutting edge of technology, you also know that we can use solar-powered LED lights for healthier green lighting.

It should avoid light pollution

Before installing exterior wall lights, be sure to check the regulations on light pollution. Light pollution can lead to wasted energy and damage people’s physical and mental health. In addition, excessive light pollution will seriously damage the ecological environment, and will also have a negative impact on traffic safety and aerospace scientific research.

Common light pollutions include: reflections from mirrored buildings can cause dizziness for pedestrians and drivers，and Unreasonable lighting at night can also cause discomfort to the human body. It’s not just about brightness. The angle and position of the lights are also important. If you’re lighting a building outdoors, it shouldn’t end up blinding anyone — whether driving or passing by.

Use LED facade lights to meet energy efficiency requirements.

LED lights are favored by industry experts around the world. There are many types of LED facade lights to choose from. Low voltage to prevent false electric shock – most outdoor led facade lights use low voltage current, such as DC5V, DC12V, DC24 volts. These are human-safe voltages. At the same time, the mature exterior facade lighting products have waterproof performance up to IP68, which greatly meets the requirements of outdoor use.

At the same time led facade lighting is very energy efficient, using the least amount of energy while providing excellent lighting.

It should be in harmony with the purpose

Architectural lighting design should support the function of the building and at the same time, highlight the structure of the building. For example, the Canton Tower has both the functions of transmitting TV signals and tourism. So the lighting design of its Canton Tower is very eye-catching, and if you look closely, you can clearly see that the lighting enhances the beauty of the architectural design.

It should achieve the best artistic effect

Now that you know, you have a variety of lighting techniques to illuminate the exterior facade of a building.Mix different kinds of fixtures, from led pixel lights to floodlights and wall washes, led media facade lighting and outdoor led linear lights — all of them can create great lighting effects. You can also use lamps of different colors, such as yellow and full color rgb lamps. Be careful that your lights don’t overwhelm the design of the building.

Other considerations when choosing architectural facade lighting

Building facade lighting is an art, and there are always some details that you need to perfect. When you are ready to choose LED lights products for facade lighting, you need to consider the following aspects:

Think about maintenance and repair

LED lamps for building facade lighting often need to withstand wind, snow, rain and high temperature weather. This requires lamps to be durable. Only professionally designed LED lights for outdoor landscape lighting can meet the needs of outdoor facade lighting.

Remember that maintenance and repair are important, whether it is commercial or residential building lighting. You’d better choose high-quality LED lights at the beginning, so as to avoid the huge hassle of subsequent maintenance.

For buildings in urban spaces

Before designing façade lighting for buildings in urban areas, it is important to consider the function of the building, and the impact the light may have on its surrounding buildings. When the building is in the center of a commercial complex, the lighting design should make it as lively as possible—especially if the buildings are open late into the night.

But if there are residential buildings next to your building, you don’t want your façade lights to look too bright. For those trying to rest at night, your lights can create light pollution that makes it impossible to relax.

For residential use

Installing exterior wall lights on residential properties follows different rules. A home is a place to relax, so Calm lighting must be used. Like warm yellow lights. At the same time, the façade lighting can represent the personality of the owner or the person living inside. This means that the house should be given some character to make the owner feel at home inside.

For buildings with minimal visibility

If the building is not in the highest visibility area, it may not be worth it to go all out with exterior façade lighting. If no one sees it, keep the lighting soft. Just focus on safety and protection. This means keeping the lights bright enough to deter trespassers and intruders. You can install light fixtures to accentuate the impressive design elements of the building. But stick to those salient parts that define the character and mood you want the building to portray.

Conclusion

Architectural facade lighting design is not simply picking some lamps and placing them randomly. After reading this article, I believe you already know what you should do and how to choose the right led facade lights for your project.

Does this get you excited about designing the facade lighting of your building?

Looking For a Architectural Facade Lighting Supplier For Your Projects?

Dreamistar is a lighting manufacturer in China. We provide a complete solution for your indoor and outdoor lighting projects. Ask for a quote now!

Hi There, I'm Kelly

I’m from Dreamistar. We are a professional LED lighting manufacturer in China. We provide high-quality LED facade lighting products for outdoor use. Get an free quote for your projects now!