Designing with light

Application guides.

How to light each type of space according to EN 12464-1: levels, glare, colour fidelity and design criteria.

By type of space

How to light an office

A workstation demands 500 maintained lux and strict glare control: this is where the standard is most demanding and where mistakes are least forgiven.

500 lxRead the guide→

How to light a retail store

In retail, light does not inform: it sells. The goal here is not uniformity but the contrast that guides the eye to the product.

300–750 lxRead the guide→

How to light a gallery or museum

Here light has two opposing duties: to reveal the work with absolute fidelity and, at the same time, not to damage it.

50–300 lx (según obra)Read the guide→

How to light a supermarket

Fresh produce is bought with the eyes. Light here must sell meat, fish, fruit and bread without falsifying their appearance or accelerating spoilage.

500–750 lxRead the guide→

How to light a restaurant or hotel

In hospitality, light is not measured only in lux: it is measured in dwell time and average spend. Well-built shadow is worth more than uniformity.

150–300 lx (mesa 200)Read the guide→

How to light a warehouse

This is not about atmosphere: it is about safety, picking accuracy and the lowest cost per square metre over 4,000 hours a year.

200 lx (picking 300)Read the guide→

How to light a classroom

A classroom is an office with two working planes: the horizontal desk and the vertical board. Solving only one of them is the most common mistake.

300–500 lx (pizarra 500)Read the guide→

How to light a healthcare facility

Two opposite users coexist here: the professional who needs clinical precision and the patient lying down looking at the ceiling. Light must serve both.

300 lx (reconocimiento 1000)Read the guide→

How to light a showroom

A showroom sells surfaces: bodywork, marble, wood, fabric. Light must not only show the object but reveal its finish and volume.

300–500 lx (pieza 750+)Read the guide→

How to light a high-end home

In residential projects the most common mistake is solving everything with a central ceiling fitting. A well-lit home does not have one level: it has layers that switch on according to the hour and the activity.

100–300 lx (tarea 500)Read the guide→

How to light receptions and circulation areas

The lobby is the first sentence a building says. And corridors are the connector nobody looks at but everybody walks: if they fail, the whole feels cheap.

300 lx (mostrador 500)Read the guide→

Technical concepts

What UGR is and why it decides your project

UGR is the index that measures how much a luminaire annoys the person looking at it. It is the figure that fails most projects at inspection, and the most misunderstood in the industry.

CIE 117 · EN 12464-1Read the guide→

CRI, R9 and TM-30: how to read a datasheet properly

CRI is the most quoted and least sufficient figure on a datasheet. Two luminaires with the same CRI 90 can produce completely different results on a red.

CIE 13.3 (CRI) · IES TM-30-20Read the guide→

How to choose colour temperature

Colour temperature is not an aesthetic preference: it changes how a material is perceived, how the customer behaves and even how well people sleep.

CIE · MacAdam (SDCM)Read the guide→

DALI, Casambi or MasterConnect: which system to choose

Dimming is no longer an extra: it is the requirement that decides consumption, energy certification and whether the space can change use without building work.

IEC 62386 (DALI-2)Read the guide→

Lumen or watt: why the watt no longer tells you anything

For decades the watt meant light. With LED it is merely what you pay on the bill: the light you get is a different matter.

lm/W · EN 13032 (flujo de luminaria)Read the guide→

IP and IK: what those numbers really protect

Two figures that decide whether a luminaire can legally be installed somewhere. And a constant confusion: IP does not measure impacts, and IK does not measure water.

IEC 60529 (IP) · IEC 62262 (IK)Read the guide→

L80B10: what LED lifetime really means

An LED does not blow: it fades. Its lifetime is therefore not a number of hours but an agreement on how much light will be lost and how many units will have failed.

IES LM-80 · TM-21 · IEC 62717Read the guide→

Flicker: the pulsing you cannot see but that affects you

The eye does not perceive it, but the brain does. Invisible flicker causes visual fatigue, headaches and, in specific cases, a dangerous stroboscopic effect around machinery.

IEEE 1789 · EN 61000-3-3 (PstLM, SVM)Read the guide→

Light and circadian rhythm: beyond seeing

Besides cones and rods, the eye has a third receptor that is not used for vision: it sets the biological clock. Designing without it is designing only half the project.

CIE S 026 (α-opic, m-EDI) · WELL v2Read the guide→