Landscape Lighting Design

When it comes to landscape lighting, most people may immediately think of dense trees emitting a faint green light in the park, or colorful fountain columns that rise and fall with music and water flow. In fact, there is a lot of knowledge involved in landscape lighting, as factors such as lighting techniques, projection angles, and lamp selection can all affect the final presentation effect.

Landscape lighting design is divided into architectural landscape lighting, plant landscape lighting, and other material landscape lighting (such as fountains, steps, etc.).

1. Projection lighting

Projection lighting is the direct projection of light onto the surface of a flat or three-dimensional object to indicate its existence and showcase its appearance or historical features. Projection lighting is divided into overall projection and partial projection. The objects of projection lighting mainly include building facades, roofs, balconies, corridors, colonnades, roads, bridges, sculptures, flags, fountain pools, lakes, artificial waterfalls, lawns, green belts, flower beds, and trees. Usually, as long as the floodlight is placed reasonably around the illuminated object, a permanent fixing effect can be obtained.  

Remark: Niagara Falls uses projection lighting to create a dreamlike night scene.

2. Outline lighting

Outline lighting is commonly used to display the volume and overall shape of buildings by connecting lights into lines, depicting the frames of the building's wheels, doors and windows, the junctions of different parts, and the lines of the roof ridge and roof. Outline lighting is used for larger buildings, emphasizing the overall shape of the building and ignoring certain local details. Corridor lighting cannot be used for small buildings because the luminous lines are too close, which can cause visual confusion within a certain distance. The most widely used contour lighting fixtures currently are LED line lights.

3. Silhouette lighting

The lighting that projects light onto the back of an object or creates negative contours through a bright background is called silhouette lighting. Silhouette can distinguish the main structure from its details, and is more suitable for non themed building compositions, such as colonnades, protruding decorative components with circular teeth on buildings, etc. The silhouette lighting treatment of these parts, combined with the projection lighting of the main building, can produce wonderful lighting effects.

Remark: The Colosseum in Rome, Italy used the technique of negative Silhouette lighting.

4. Internal lighting

Similar to the principle of a lantern, a lantern is a typical example of internal light transmission, with the light source inside and penetrating the medium to the outside.

5. Neon lighting

Neon lighting is a form of illumination that utilizes the color and shape of neon lights to create decorative effects. Neon lights, as a type of landscape lighting source, are widely favored due to their rich tube shapes, vibrant colors, dynamic nature, strong light penetration, and energy efficiency.