Art Room Design Issues

Art Room Design Issues 

Because appearance of colors in the art room is important, good color rendering capabilities by the lighting system are required. In the art room, ambient light should be diffused and uniform. Supplemental task lighting should be directional to provide the shadows and highlights necessary to model three-dimensional objects. Because art rooms involve computers for design work, lighting for these rooms must be adjustable by the user to accommodate these varied needs.

Viewing pieces of original art under a variety of lighting systems and assuring accurate communication of color is a problem known as metamerism. Metamerism is the tendency for color to shift in hue as it is viewed under different lighting conditions or a condition in which colors match under one light source but do not match under another light source, due to different pigments having been used to produce the sample colors.

When designing a facility for correct lighting, the terms “Color Rendering Index”, “Color Temperature” and “Illuminance” need to be understood. Color Rendering Index refers to a method for describing the effect of a light source on the color appearance of objects. Color Temperature a description of the color appearance of a light source, measured in Kelvins. Lamps below 3500K are considered “warm”, and are more reddish in color. Lamps above 4000K are considered “cool” sources, and are more bluish in color. Incandescent lamps are usually “warm” in color.

In rooms with both incandescent and fluorescent luminaries, “warm” fluorescent lamps with a low color temperature (3500K or lower) will match the color of the incandescent lamps. Illuminance is the density of light striking a surface. It is usually measured in foot-candles (fc) Lumens per square foot, or lux - Lumens per square meter.