Photographer: Leonid Furmansky | ArchDaily

Understanding Light Sources: Types, Metrics, and Their Role in Architectural Design

Eduardo Souza — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Walking into an electrical store can be intimidating. At first glance, all the lights are on, and the thousands of chandeliers and lamps are blinding. When you walk toward the shelves, you see dozens of options, shapes, colors, prices, and uses. On each package, informational tables display numbers that can seem confusing at first. Lumens, color temperature, wattage—there are many unfamiliar terms. Before defaulting to the cheapest option, only to find that it creates an uncomfortable or poorly balanced atmosphere, understanding a few key concepts can make a significant difference.

Lighting design plays a fundamental role in shaping how spaces are perceived and used, influencing comfort, atmosphere, and even productivity. Poorly designed lighting, on the other hand, can compromise these qualities. Rather than approaching lighting as a purely technical decision, it can be understood as an integral part of architectural design. To help clarify these choices, the following overview introduces the most common types of light sources and key concepts associated with them.

Crux Pflugerville / Derrington Building Studio

Hadir Al Koshta — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Crux Pflugerville marks Crux Climbing Center's first purpose-built facility, thoughtfully designed by Derrington Building Studio to blend athletic function, architectural clarity, and community engagement. Located in the suburban context of Pflugerville, Texas, this 33,000-square-foot structure thoughtfully responds to strict regulatory and programmatic requirements, creating a distinctive yet contextually respectful landmark.

Roost Platform / Furman + Keil Architects

Pilar Caballero — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Nestled across the water from a nature preserve, this 928-square-foot project sits just minutes from downtown Austin. At the bottom of a bluff, fifty feet below the surrounding neighborhood, the project is sheltered by large trees along the secluded waterway that is only navigable by canoes and kayaks. Reaching the site is a journey descending an extensive staircase, passing through a natural stone grotto, down into the wetland habitat.

Tiger Island Senior Apartments / Rome Office

Valeria Silva — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 03:00:00 +0000

As the first development in Morgan City to offer affordable housing for seniors in over a decade, this project encourages the comfortable transition to communal living by creating a centralized, shared courtyard within which residents circulate and congregate. Articulated unit entries support wayfinding for aging residents and double exposure to natural light creates dynamic spaces within. Familiar materials and textures define stacked volumes that hinge to cover and shade the main entry and exterior walkways.

Mount Sharp Residence / Matt Fajkus Architecture

Hadir Al Koshta — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

After years of weekend visits and time spent getting to know their site, the client's main charge was to realize a house that would allow them to use and enjoy the land to its fullest. Located in the rolling landscape of Wimberley, Texas, it was only natural to take advantage of the miniature plateaus contained within the 22-acre lot. These "land shelves" span across the site in the east-west direction making them an ideal platform for a house that takes advantage of both solar and wind orientation.

Moongate ADU / Cover Architecture

Hadir Al Koshta — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 02:00:00 +0000

A street-facing ADU presents a sculptural façade, bringing intrigue to a quiet Altadena neighborhood. Its expressive sloped partition wall with a large circular opening, at once, conceals and reveals what's beyond the parapet. Designed by principal architect Mike Wang of Cover Architecture, the 620 sf dwelling is a place for his mother, Pei and her partner, Dan—both former professors, to enjoy their retirement while living in proximity to Mike and his young family who reside in the primary house on site.

Henri II House / Murray Legge Architecture

Paula Pintos — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0000

This project began as a collaboration between an artist and architectural historian who commissioned us to build a new residence on their compact lot in Central Austin. Their vision involved creating a new dwelling unit at the rear of the property while preserving their existing 1940s cottage.

Filtered Frame Dock / Matt Fajkus Architecture

Hadir Al Koshta — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0000

This dock is a structure that negotiates between the realms of land, water, and sky by framing one’s experience and understanding of the natural environment, above, along, and in the water. Located at the base of a steeply sloping ravine with leads to a residence elevated above the water, the dock is intentionally crafted as an integrated component of the overall site conditions.

Temporary, but with Long-Lasting Effects: 6 Ways in Which Architecture Festivals Can Revitalize a City

Maria-Cristina Florian — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 07:30:00 +0000

Biennales, exhibitions, and architecture focused festivals provide a platform for opening debates, conducting research, and driving innovation, but they can also contribute to the incremental changes that shape the image and the character of a city. Through temporary installations and experiments, this type of events have the opportunity to open lines on inquiry into the quality of urban spaces, inviting visitors and residents to slow down, break away from their daily routine and interrogate their local environments. The effects might not be immediate, but by cumulating these impressions and moments of contemplation, architecture and design festivals can have a long-lasting impact on the cities that welcome them.

Constant Springs Residence / Alterstudio Architecture

Clara Ott — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

The opportunity to live simultaneously in the center of the city and in an isolated refuge presented a powerful circumstance for this family of four. Within a very ordinary neighborhood, this home is oriented to take maximum advantage of the unexpected escarpment, creek and natural views offered at the rear of the property.

NYCxDESIGN Celebrates its 10th Anniversary with Architectural Installations and Interventions across the City

Dima Stouhi — Tue, 24 May 2022 06:30:00 +0000

With a mission to support, empower, and grow the city's design sector, New York's annual design festival, the NYCxDESIGN presented a selection of architectural installations, talks, and events to celebrate global creative accomplishments, share new ideas, and inspire through design. This year, the festival returned for its tenth edition, running from May 10th - 20th. Having been a special anniversary, this year showcased New York's creative diversity and talent, putting on display its designers, makers, manufacturers, innovative design businesses, as well as world-class cultural and academic design institutions.

Greenbriar Residence / CONTENT Architecture

Luciana Pejić — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 13:00:00 +0000

The Greenbriar Residence conceives of the house as a collection of stones clustered around a pool of water. Within the house, each stone volume contains a specific aspect of the program, providing spaces for living, dining, cooking, relaxing, playing, and sleeping. These separate volumes are linked through the movement of the home’s occupants, wrapping around an interior courtyard and pool at the center of the site. Each of these volumes visually connect to the courtyard, framing various views of this interior landscape.

8 Stories of Architects Embracing Refurbishment and Adaptive Reuse

Andreea Cutieru — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 05:30:00 +0000

Over the past year, established practices have continued to champion the transformation of existing structures, with adaptive reuse and renovations increasingly becoming a defining aspect of contemporary architecture From the renovation of landmark structures to the adaptive reuse of obsolete facilities, the idea of giving new life to existing buildings has been embraced as the premise for a more sustainable practice, but also as a means of reinforcing the urban and cultural identity of cities. Discover 8 designs and recently completed projects that showcase a new common practice of reusing existing building stock.

Temporary Tiger - Covid Classroom / Murray Legge Architecture

Andreas Luco — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 06:00:00 +0000

As a solution to the challenges faced because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Little Tiger Chinese Immersion School chose to move a large portion of its classes outdoors. Over the summer the school director reached out to our office to design an outdoor classroom that could be built quickly and affordably before the start of the new Fall 2020 school year. Their primary concern was to shelter the children from the intense Texas sun. The temporary structure cost less than $3000 USD and took about a week to build. It is composed primarily of wood 2x4’s which are secured to the ground with threaded pile anchors that can be easily removed when the structure is taken down, leaving no trace that it was there.

Best Architectural Projects of 2021

Clara Ott — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 07:30:00 +0000

More than 5000 new projects published throughout 2021 make ArchDaily the largest online architecture library in the world. ArchDaily Curatorial Team researches, contacts offices, prepares, and delivers the built projects in the world on a daily basis, with the objective of providing inspiration, knowledge, and tools to our users who take part in the creation of better built environments.

Framing Indeterminacy: The Incorporation of Uncertainty Into Architecture

Andreea Cutieru — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 07:30:00 +0000

By definition, architecture and urban planning operate within a certain degree of indeterminacy, using present context to find viable answers for an unknown future. As a result, design is a constant search for a balance between prescribing and taking a step back to make room for alternate yet unforeseeable scenarios. Uncertainty is an inherent condition in present-day society, and recent rapid social, economic, and even environmental changes prompt a closer look at how architecture can incorporate indeterminacy. The following reviews some precedents and contemporary examples that programmatically operate with indeterminacy, highlighting several strategies for designing for uncertainty and change.

Manifold House / Matt Fajkus Architecture

Valeria Silva — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Manifold House is a straightforward gable form sliced open to create a series of unique spatial experiences that capitalize on the varied relationships between the building, the user, and the natural site context. Marrying a three-story program with a hilltop site, the home is partially embedded into its hilltop site connecting to the sky and surrounding vistas by building up.

World Photography Day: 25 Emerging Architectural Photographers from Around the Globe

Paula Pintos — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Architectural photography has developed into its own art form, and it might be as important as the built work itself. We consume architecture not only physically and spatially in a building but also through photographs. A good image reportage work can give the viewer a feeling of the atmosphere, senses, and design intentions the project may spark, without actually being in the place. Photography is also a way of documenting the project's process, the use of materials, lighting, and architectural elements, and as a result, tell a complete story behind a building.