The importance of staircase lighting, specific did not chat down, then I deliberately go online to check the content of the staircase lighting, found that, really a thousand pictures. Is not the staircase lighting can not talk about something else? Come on, today we science in the end, talk about the practical version of the staircase lighting!
Small building, big role
Staircase as a small building in the building, the volume is relatively small, the structure is relatively simple form.
▲© Iwan Baan | MAXXI Museum
▲Courtesy of Ora Ito, photography: WeAreContents
However, nowadays, many public buildings, as well as home space, the staircase is often a focus of the design, can play a good role in embellishing the space, and sometimes, because the staircase design is good, minutes into the net red card place. And more and more designers, but also gradually take the stairs as a kind of space decorations to design, in order to meet the basic function of its safety, give full play to their imagination.
Staircase lighting design is definitely a key point to express its safety and aesthetics. Therefore, when designing staircase lighting, the relationship between the staircase itself and its surrounding space, i.e., the two factors of the staircase ‘inside and outside’, should be fully considered.
Internal refers to the structure and construction of the staircase itself, the choice of materials, the treatment of stair treads and balustrade handrails; external refers to the characteristics of the surrounding space. Only when the two are considered in a unified way can they be perfectly combined.
Classification of Stairs
Staircase as a building between the floors connected to the components, by the continuous rungs of the ladder, platform and enclosure, etc., can be divided into two categories of ordinary stairs and special stairs.
Ordinary stairs include: reinforced concrete stairs, steel stairs and wooden stairs, etc., of which reinforced concrete stairs have more advantages in terms of structural rigidity, fire resistance, cost, construction, modelling, etc., and are most commonly used.
Special stairs include: safety stairs, fire stairs and escalators of three kinds.
In addition, according to space classification, it can be divided into indoor stairs and outdoor stairs.
Indoor stairs: solid wood stairs, steel stairs, steel and glass, reinforced concrete or a variety of mixed materials. Among them, solid wood staircase is the most widely used staircase in high-grade housing, steel and glass mixed structure staircase in modern office areas, office buildings, shopping malls, exhibition halls and other places, reinforced concrete staircase is widely used in a variety of duplex buildings.
Outdoor stairs: because of the consideration of wind and rain and other natural factors, the general appearance of the beautiful solid wood stairs, steel stairs, metal stairs, etc. is not very suitable, reinforced concrete stairs, a variety of stone stairs are most common.
▲ Various materials of the stairs
How to do staircase lighting?
Like the most common daily concrete stairs, lighting how to do?
1
Installation of light strips on stair treads
I believe that many families, when they are not yet finished, most of them are in the situation shown in the picture below.
In this case, the solid wall and the stairs are concrete, it is recommended that you can install some light strips in the location of the stair treads, and these light strips, can be downward, can also be inward.
However, the prerequisite is: to add a stone slab or a wooden board on top of the concrete, so that the stair treads will have a structure that extends out and constitutes the condition for installing light strips.
Caveats:
① If the treads are paved with very bright stones or tiles, the light should not shine downwards. If you shine downwards, the ground stone is prone to form specular reflection, resulting in reflections. Therefore, the light should be shone inwards.
② Pedals do not stick out too much space. Many people in order to make the lighting effect looks better, say 5cm, 8cm out, too long, it is easy to trip. However, if you extend too little, the light can only come out a little bit, which is very restrictive.
(P.S. To prevent tripping over the toe, the staircase section nose from the distance of the kicker stopper control in 20mm below, some special circumstances, such as the tread is too narrow, the principle of increasing the section of the nose should also try to control in 30mm)
2
Staircase addition device
In the first method, the strip light is installed in the condition of having stone board or wooden board embedded, while the second one, it is through the external embedded way (tread light).
By way of staircase plus device, that is, the above tread light, each with its own non-slip strip, although it is an external device, in fact, it is also a light, so pay attention to the wattage do not choose too big, because each step has a light strip.
3
More staircase lighting solutions
① In addition to the lighting design that can be done on the stair treads, we can also choose to do the treatment on the handrail.
For example, make the whole handrail appear bright, or install light strips under the handrail.
Or, drill holes under the handrail and embed the lights into the holes. The picture below is a standard practice seen in Australia.
▲Night effect
▲Daytime effect
②We can also choose to install two strips of light on both sides of the stairs, or hide light-emitting objects on the side of the stairs.
For example, you can open a slot on the side of the stairs, and then embed a whole aluminium profile into it, which ensures that there is a place to put the light strip inside. And this approach is both anti-glare, lighting effect and good, a whole strip as long as there is a point out of the line.
③ There is another way, is to install footlights. If you install footlights, you can open a hole in the wall, the lamps and lanterns to choose the thickness of the smaller embedded footlights, you can also choose to install the footlights.
▲Hole opening embedded
▲Explicit installation method
Cautions:
①Don’t install the footer light too short, if it is too short, the light range is small.
②Take into consideration the installation position of the footer light in the place that is easily covered by people.
Where to put the driver?
If the lamp is low voltage, to connect 220V high voltage, there should be a driver, then, where to put the driver?
Generally speaking, like the corner of the stairs will have a hidden place, this indoor place driver can be placed in the corner of the hidden place.
But very often, there is no such hidden place on the ground. At this time, we can choose to put the driver on the ceiling, low-voltage wire down.
Some people may ask: low voltage driver output if the line is too long, connected to the light strip will not have a voltage drop? To be honest, the line down, it’s only about 3 metres, and the power of the footlights is not too big, it will not have a big impact.
Today’s practical science is here, there are more questions about stair lighting? Come on, consult us, we are waiting for you to ask!
