Facade lighting:

how to illuminate with

outdoor recessed spotlights

It is not always easy to effectively provide lighting for building facades, especially outdoors, it is necessary to study appropriate lighting that is consistent with the building and its context, but at the same time functional and highlights the architecture even from a distance.

On the facades of modern buildings or large historic buildings, it is not always straightforward to calculate the quantity and quality of light needed to ensure a successful project. That is why it is important to rely on professionals in the field to avoid mistakes in the choice of luminaires and the number of fixtures needed.

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Facade lighting: bottom-up lighting

Take as an example the facade lighting of a house with an irregular wall or historic buildings where it is not possible to work directly on the facade. In this case, we will use outdoor recessed spotlights to achieve a lighting effect on the facade from the bottom.

While for accent lighting, floodlights are particularly suitable, for uniform surface lighting we use wall-washer luminaires that are ideal for accentuating brightness.

Wall-washer lighting with BASE by STRAL

LED outdoor recessed spotlights for in-ground installation from the BASE line are particularly suitable for highlighting the structure of the building by emphasizing its architecture and volumes and hiding any imperfections in the walls. In this case we have a bottom-up light effect.

The LED spotlight BASE, entirely made of stainless steel, is available with two or three optics from different beam angles placed horizontally or vertically depending on the desired effect. The vertical arrangement of the optics is particularly suitable for achieving narrow projections and on high, vertical square footage, while the horizontal arrangement is used to achieve more homogeneous and continuous effects on the linear development of the wall.

Wallwashers (diffuse and uniform wall lighting), unlike grazing lighting, are installed slightly farther from the wall- up to 1 meter - to achieve a wider angle between the light source and the wall.

Facade lighting : Grazing lighting with OLY by STRAL

Grazing lighting is used to accentuate and enhance textured surfaces such as stone walls. Grazing lighting fixtures are recessed into the ground illuminating the wall at a narrow angle to create sharp shadows that emphasize the texture of the wall. This type of grazing lighting is suitable for highlighting the texture of facade materials.

Grazing light brings out the texture of facades in a suggestive way and is therefore used for historical settings that are very rich in relief and where the materials are often stone and brick. The OLY series spotlights entirely made of stainless steel, including the body, are ideal for achieving this kind of effect.

The IP rating in outdoor lighting

All outdoor luminaires have a degree of protection ranging from a minimum of IP65 to a maximum of IP68. This makes them dust-tight and protected from splashing water from all directions. A fundamental requirement for luminaires installed directly in the ground and exposed to the weather. STRAL fixtures, in addition to the stainless steel ring nut, have a lamp body also made of AISI 316L stainless-steel.