The Architecture Of Light: A textbook of procedures and practices for the Architect, Interior Designer and Lighting Designer.

As an interior design student, this was a textbook selected for my lighting class. I have really enjoyed this book. It is easy-to-understand and explains concepts clearly. The photographs and diagrams are really helpful. It has provided basic foundation knowledge for my class and enhances instructor lessons and field trips. What I like is that it gets into how lighting is really used in the arena of a design professional. I love lighting stores, but did not realize how much goes into creating a lighting design that is functional and efficient. Each chapter was thoughtfully presented and incorporated photographs and renderings that applied to the principle being taught. I am very happy with this book which is definitely a keeper!

I needed to design the lighting for a major remodeling project. Sage Russell's book gave me the lumens per square foot for different rooms, five different layers of design, and examples of fixtures that are available, including low-level lights for stairs that I would not have thought about otherwise. The layers (if I remember correctly) are clear over-lays that he uses to plan (1) guiding people's paths in or through the space, (2) task lighting, (3) accent lighting, (4) mood lighting, and (5) lighting architectural details. The lighting that I now plan does not have all of these layers in every room, but it is more sophisticated than what I could have done without this book. It is also more sophisticated than what design professionals without specific lighting training may do. I loved this book.

I just redesigned and remodeled my entire house and was extremely happy with everything except for the lighting. As a mechanical engineer I just didn't think about this crucial aspect to the design, and wish that I'd read this book before putting in normal stuff with fairly pedestrian results! We added accent lighting where necessary and even moved a couple of lights, there's nothing more "fun" than moving a light and having a sheetrock repair in BRAND NEW sheetrock. Read this book FIRST and avoid that lovely experience :)

This book is very organized and everything is easy to understand. all the headlines bolded and the graphics are colored. Also, all the headlines and the important information were bolded.

Good book for school, but there are quite a few grammatical and spelling errors.

The book was in great condition. Ended up not needing it so I returned it!

As a teacher of Environmental Control Systems, for architecture students (which includes both Illumination and Acoustics, my main field of interest) I needed a text capable of providing a design approach, coupled broadly to the technical aspects of the discipline. Sage Russell's book clearly accomplishes this masterfully, and has gained a following among the Studio Design professors as well. The materials are stimulating and the writing is entertaining. I can truly recommend it in this context.

As a practicing architect, I find this book to be spot on. I appreciate the author's focus on providing concise explanation of lighting techniques and methods. I also find his suggested design process to be very effective as well as efficient. Finally, as a lighting designer, he offers many valuable tips along the way on how to avoid pitfalls in typical lighting solutions. My lighting designs have improved significantly.

A great textbook for those going into the architecture and design field. It's very useful and I highly recommend it.

Using this book in the construction of our new house to make sure the lighting appropriately highlights and accents such a major investment. Covers he basics and give detailed examples really well. Would be nice to have chapter on lighting techniques when integrated with home automation, but probably is outside the scope of this text.

As an interior design student, this was a textbook selected for my lighting class. I have really enjoyed this book. It is easy-to-understand and explains concepts clearly. The photographs and diagrams are really helpful. It has provided basic foundation knowledge for my class and enhances instructor lessons and field trips. What I like is that it gets into how lighting is really used in the arena of a design professional. I love lighting stores, but did not realize how much goes into creating a lighting design that is functional and efficient. Each chapter was thoughtfully presented and incorporated photographs and renderings that applied to the principle being taught. I am very happy with this book which is definitely a keeper!

I needed to design the lighting for a major remodeling project. Sage Russell's book gave me the lumens per square foot for different rooms, five different layers of design, and examples of fixtures that are available, including low-level lights for stairs that I would not have thought about otherwise. The layers (if I remember correctly) are clear over-lays that he uses to plan (1) guiding people's paths in or through the space, (2) task lighting, (3) accent lighting, (4) mood lighting, and (5) lighting architectural details. The lighting that I now plan does not have all of these layers in every room, but it is more sophisticated than what I could have done without this book. It is also more sophisticated than what design professionals without specific lighting training may do. I loved this book.

I just redesigned and remodeled my entire house and was extremely happy with everything except for the lighting. As a mechanical engineer I just didn't think about this crucial aspect to the design, and wish that I'd read this book before putting in normal stuff with fairly pedestrian results! We added accent lighting where necessary and even moved a couple of lights, there's nothing more "fun" than moving a light and having a sheetrock repair in BRAND NEW sheetrock. Read this book FIRST and avoid that lovely experience :)

This book is very organized and everything is easy to understand. all the headlines bolded and the graphics are colored. Also, all the headlines and the important information were bolded.

Good book for school, but there are quite a few grammatical and spelling errors.

The book was in great condition. Ended up not needing it so I returned it!

As a teacher of Environmental Control Systems, for architecture students (which includes both Illumination and Acoustics, my main field of interest) I needed a text capable of providing a design approach, coupled broadly to the technical aspects of the discipline. Sage Russell's book clearly accomplishes this masterfully, and has gained a following among the Studio Design professors as well. The materials are stimulating and the writing is entertaining. I can truly recommend it in this context.

As a practicing architect, I find this book to be spot on. I appreciate the author's focus on providing concise explanation of lighting techniques and methods. I also find his suggested design process to be very effective as well as efficient. Finally, as a lighting designer, he offers many valuable tips along the way on how to avoid pitfalls in typical lighting solutions. My lighting designs have improved significantly.

A great textbook for those going into the architecture and design field. It's very useful and I highly recommend it.

Using this book in the construction of our new house to make sure the lighting appropriately highlights and accents such a major investment. Covers he basics and give detailed examples really well. Would be nice to have chapter on lighting techniques when integrated with home automation, but probably is outside the scope of this text.

College book was very useful for my class.

Really good Lighting book, that gives good examples and explanations of how to do light.

This book helped me a lot in my clasees regarless that it was require this book explains a lot of concepts for lighting.

We're adding new recessed lighting around the house...mostly on paintings, drapes, kitchen counters, etc and wanted some specific help with the myriad of sizes, types, trims, voltages, etc and some of the artistic aspects...ceiling spacing, wall washing, placement for paintings, etc. We bought two books, this one and "The Home Lighting Effects Bible." The Bible was much better for our needs, and much cheaper. It has loads of information and useful example photos...I highly recommend it. However, it still didn't overcome the huge problem of deciding among the myriad of sizes, types, trims, voltages, etc. This "Architecture of Light" book was OK, but we didn't find it particularly useful for our needs. A couple of professional lighting designers recommended going with 4" low-voltage (12V) MR16 lights...so that is what we did. I then spent weeks trying out dozens of different types of trims (Eyeballs, gimbals, recessed cones, truncated cones, chrome (clear), white, gold, etc). I didn't find a book to help clear that forest. There are almost hundreds of trim styles and color combinations, but they aren't on Amazon or in the big box stores like Home Depot...you have to go to web wholesale electric sites. We're very happy with the results...mostly white trims with gold truncated cones that hide the bulb from side view and allow 30 degree angle on paintings (e.g. Elite B1463RB-WH trims). We used Amazon for some early test gimbal trims and the special Low Voltage Magnetic dimmers that you need to dim the lights. You need the dimmers and a variety of MR16 bulb styles (wattage and angle) to balance the lighting effects in different locations.

Although this is my textbook in school, it is a KEEPER beyond the class and will be referred to regularly! Great book! Highly recommended!

Just starting out in the field of lighting design and found the book informative and easy to follow the ideas and concepts.

The architecture of light: a text book of procedures and practices for the architect, interior designer and lighting designer is a pretty helpful book

This book offers students a great introduction to the world of lighting design. It contains a logical path through this design process while giving the reader a sufficient amount of examples, pictures, etc. along the way. Having used this text myself, I feel it was an excellent course book and I am confident it will be a useful reference to have in the future.

Product arrived as described!

Very easy to read, this book brings you out of the wilderness and gives you the principle foundations for great lighting strategies.

It is a perfect guide to understand the principles of the lighting design...

Just what i needed for class. Thanks. The author has many typos throughout the book and its not written very well, though. Haha

Great thanks!

Great! Detailed and easy to read

it is a very good book to have in your library. every designer will benefit from reading it. it is also easily understood

Great book! It was highly recommended by my colleagues. Not disappointed.

Amazing book

Met expectation

Not sure with what others got, but the printing of the front cover is slightly off.

As my title says, this book is extremely practical. It is relatively easy to read with a conversational tone to the text sprinkled with humorous comments that keep this from becoming a dry textbook. It also provides a lot of illustrated examples, including cutsheets from real products which, in order to teach how to read one, has sections highlighted and explained. What I found particularly useful is how it summarizes the main differences between different light sources succinctly. The chapter explaining the five layer approach to lighting design is a logical and easily understandable approach that makes the process of design less intimidating. The one weakness I've found is that there could be more information/diagrams on explaining the process of placing lighting fixtures (i.e. how far from the wall to place a downlight angled at 30 degrees from its target surface) although it does explain what sort of lighting effects on their relative placement (i.e. close to the perimeter vs far from the perimeter). Overall, one of the better textbooks I've read and one that I can expect to continue using as a reference.

As an Interior Design student, I found this book very helpful in de-mystifying all things light. Sage's five light map phases are a great tool in figuring out where lighting should go for maximum effect. I also found the by using the light maps, I could see weaknesses in my design I might not have noticed otherwise. If I found there is nothing to focus light on, then maybe there should be some tweeking of the space plan/design itself to give it focus. I enjoyed the conversational style of the book (not another boring textbook), and Sage's enthusiasm for lighting design really shines thoughout the book.

Rich with colorful images, this is a five star lighting text that offers a creative logic to lighting design. I have successfully used this book as the introduction to lighting in a pre-architecture and interior design course at the sophomore level. My course used many of the available PowerPoint presentation slides, instructor's notes, and assignments provided by the author. Because of the practical approach taken by the text, I was able to match weekly assignments to each weekly lecture and students built a course portfolio of lighting exercises that will be useful in additional studio work. When technical information is so easily accessible online, I particularly appreciate the author's balanced perspective that honors the aesthetics of architectural lighting and helps students become intrigued with its magic.

In an industry known for confusing acronyms, undeciferable number sequences and cut sheets, this book acts like a road map for understanding the multi faceted world of lighting design. Delightfully straight forward and easy to read, each of Russell's steps is outlined clearly to help teach a general method for approaching lighting a space depending on your end goals rather then a micro managed process of what goes where in each room. The concepts are balanced with doses of real world insight and finished off with a great breakdown of sample fixtures and their applications. Explaination and illustration of cut sheets, lamp details, lighting maps, sample interiors and exteriors all contribute to the book's clarity. Whether you are an industry professional hoping to brush up on your understanding of current technique or a student trying to get a good general introduction to the field this book is sure to be exactly what your looking for.

This book is so fantastic that I emailed the author directly. Here is what I told him: I really LOVE your book! (LOVE...LOVE...LOVE IT!) It is just what I wanted and needed for my students. I am planning to use it for my new online lighting class to launch spring 2009. I have found your power points helpful also...thank you so much! Here is what I didn't tell him: The Architecture of Light reads like a lighting novel instead of a textbook...I just wanted to keep reading and reading. It is the ONLY lighting textbook I've ever read that didn't put me to sleep! The Architecture of Light is not only interesting and practical; it also easy to read, easy to understand and I could hear Sage's enthusiasm seeping through the pages as I read it. Sage Russell offers readers a refreshing perspective on how to create with light and his book truly transformed my understanding of this subject. Educators, designers and students alike will find his book to be a valuable & excellent resource on their path to understanding and mastering lighting concepts and techniques. I loved it...and so will you!

Sage Russell, once again, proves to master his latest endeavor! The Architecture of Light is an accomplished and entertaining piece of literature, which is refreshing considering its content. Content, if not handled with the reader in mind, could lead to it being used to prop up a table instead of enlightening the reader. The structure of the book allows for it to flow from beginning to end and not only provides concepts and principles, but also techniques and everyday applications that leave the student with a well-rounded understanding of effective lighting design. Sage has written and illustrated a book that proves to be a vauluable tool for students and professionals alike. This book will continue to grace the shelves of my reference library for years to come! Well done!

I had the honor of editing a textbook written by a friend of mine. The Architecture of Light, by Sage Russell, is a lighting textbook that focuses primarily on lighting design and not just the physics of light. Because of the excellent presentation of design principles, I have decided to use this text as the book for my lighting design class. Sage has taken his experience as a lighting educator and developed a unique method of presentation for many of the topics. Specifically, the light mapping technique is a proven method of presenting lighting concepts and one I use on a regular basis. I would not only recommend this book to students of lighting design, but I think even experienced designers will gain a new perspective of their lighting design process. I urge anyone in the lighting industry to take a look, given the opportunity- you will not be disappointed. (this review taken from [...]

This book was an extremely helpful tool when trying to understand lighting and all of the elements that are considered when creating a lighting design! I knew practically nothing about lighting until I read this book. While it is simple enough for someone that is new to lighting, like me, to comprehend;I am now able to carry on conversations with lighting designers and actually know what I am talking about. The pictures and diagrams were perfect and very easy to understand! I recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn about lighting or needs a good lighting reference guide to add to their library!

As an interior design student I just recently finished a class about interior lighting. When I first started the class I didn't know anything about lighting or even how to go about making lighitng decisions on my own. After reading this book and having it as a reference I feel confident that my lighting skills have inccreased enormously. The author breaks down the elements of creating an interesting lighting design in five easy steps, and it has great diagrams and pictures to further help you understand. This is a great book and easy to understand!!

This book is a must have for every person who is into the science of lighting design. Very straight forward approach to the concepts of electrical lighting design. A great read for an Interior Designer or a Tradesman.

The Architecture of Light is a wonderful tool for all people of the design industry to have. This book is packed with immense knowledge from a renown professional in the Architecture/ Design Industry. The readings are very clear and easy to understand, and are able to grasp and keep the attention of the reader as most architectural/lighting/engineering books have a hard time trying to accomplish. I would recommend this book for everyone to have as a wonderfool tool to aid you in lighting design, which also provides its reader with lots of visual tools to answer any questions that you may have.

This book is a must-have if you are in any way involved with lighting. The author writes as if he's speaking to you which makes for an enjoyable read. I have read the book several times and as my own knowledge grows I continue to absorb new and useful information which I missed on previous reads. It also makes for a handy reference when you are questioning a lighting layout. I would have given this book 10 stars if there wasn't a limit!

Finally, a book has been written that truly expresses the process of lighting design. You will find this text to be refreshingly organic in it's approach to seeing and feeling the lighted environment first. The science of illumination is covered in a very intuitive manner. Russell's illustrations and examples are easily understood. You feel as though you are attending a private instruction session. I highly recommend this book. As an architectural lighting designer, I am using this as an inspirational guide with fellow designers and clients. Well done!

Author Sage Russell clearly and concisely identifies the key principles to `good' lighting design. Each chapter walks you through the different principles and without getting bogged down in unnecessary jargon. The concepts and graphics make for an interesting and relatively easy read. I recommend this book for any designer looking to learn more about using lighting to create an effect, emotion, or a specific atmosphere in a space.

This is a great book for students. It really helps show every process that a lighting designer goes through. In detail the book explains how to get the process started and how to finish the job. This picture has great illustrations to help show his points. So if you are a visual learner or if you learn better by reading it will accomidate both. Great Job Sage, love the book definately a keeper for the library!

This is a great book that gets right to the idea of actual lighting design. It touches on a few technical aspects, but it does not weigh you down with a lot of information pertinent to making you an electrician. What I love most about this book is that it breaks down the design process into five easy steps. It helps to free you from preconceived notions, and teaches you to look at lighting as DESIGN as opposed to purely functional.

The Architecture of Light is not your average, boring textbook. It has a multitude of great graphics and easy to understand text which make it truly enjoyable to read. This book covers just about everything you would ever need to know about lighting, even including how to read manufacturer's lighting specs and write your own - very useful! I will definitely keep this book in my library, as opposed to hocking it online like all of my other useless textbooks! Thanks Sage!

I practice and teach lighting design in New York City, and bought this book to see if it would be useful for my students. As an easy read for a home owner who wants to learn more about lighting, this book is fine. However, I don't recommend this as a design textbook. The biggest problem is in the explanation of lighting calculations, which is simply wrong because most of them ignore the distance that light must travel between the light source and the point of interest. We all know from experience that the farther away a light source is, the less light it delivers. When distance is introduced it, too, is incorrect. One type of calculation utilizes the Inverse Square of the distance between the light and the target. However, squaring the distance doesn't produce a measurement of square feet, just the result of a mathematical function. If light travels 10 ft., for example, squaring that distance produces the number 100, not 100 sq. ft. Where would those square feet be found? The general design approach is well written and useful. However, the chapter on calculations should be skipped entirely.

Great resource for understanding the principles of lighting design, great explanation of lighting techniques and methods, and most important easy to read and follow... If you are a student is a great book to have!

This is a great book, it is packed with very useful information and will be a great reference book in the future. The images make the material clear and easy to understand. I recomend it to any design student who needs detailed information about lighting in a commercial or residential application. It also makes a great drink coaster for your coffee table, haha! Kate S-P DISD

I had a Lighting Design class with Sage Russell a few years ago at DISD San Diego, and this book is as fantastic as his instruction in a classroom. If you choose any book to reference to help you with lighting design, this one really encompasses all the elements that you need in order to be truly knowledgeable of the craft. Great book!

I found this book very helpfull in every form of lighting. If there was something that I needed to know or look up, there was a chapter for that topic. Sage made it easy to understand what is nessarry for good lighting design. His examples and pictures makes it helpful for any person just at the beginning stage of design.

The title says it all! Having known VERY little able lighting before this book, I now feel confident to infuse really great lighting choices into my interior design plans...and also realize how truly important lighting is to a design. The book is simple, and explains the concepts very well for beginners like me. Enjoy!

This book is a really great tool to understand the most important principles about lighting design. It is easy and pleasant to read. I learned a lot and it will definitely help me with my career in Interior Design. I strongly recommend it to all design professionals.

This book is destined to be a bible for interior designers and students interested in lighting design. It is written in a logical manner that alleviates the intimidation factor of the lighting design process. Professional designers and students will find this book to be comprehensive and enlightening on the approaches for designing with light.

THIS WAS AN INTERESTING READ ALL AROUND. VERY INFORMATIVE, AND WELL WRITTEN. I ENJOYED THE SHORT CHAPTERS, IT MADE IT EASIER TO TO PICK UP WHERE I LEFT. THE AUTHOR DOES A GREAT JOB OF EXPLAINING LIGHTING IN A WAY THAT ANYONE CAN UNDERSTAND, NOT JUST PEOPLE IN THE LIGHTING FIELD. GOOOD JOB SAGE.

This book is extremely helpful the information is easy to understand, and well organized. The confusing technical aspects of lighting design were thoughtful and clearly explained in a matter in which anyone would be able to comprehend. Well Done!

The Architect of Light is a great lighting reference for anyone interested in designing a space that creates emotion through the maximum effect of light. The five step process tought by Sage Russell will definitely benefit me as a future Interior Designer!

Great resource for communicating and teaching the beginning concepts of lighting design for new interior designers.

As an interior design student I found this book to be extremely helpful. The book is straight forward and gives several helpful diagrams. The author gives a step by step approach of his unique design process that can be helpful in any design project. Great book!

I have been using this book since it first came on the market. I found it the best lighting textbook for beginning design students. Sincere thanks for your brilliant work, Sage!

After learning about lighting for interior design, I knew there was more information to fill the gaps. Sage Russell did just that with a clear writing format and easy steps to follow for successful lighting design.