The second of a two-part series, this primer on incorporating linear lights in design presents examples of recessed applications and systems and suspension fixtures that help achieve similar visual impacts. (CLICK HERE if you missed part one on surface-mounting lines of light.)
When the 80s movie “Tron” gave us a glimpse into an imaginary computer world, it presented a dark but striking realm sliced by neon-like lines of light. This dramatic aesthetic may have been indicative of what we considered a futuristic look in those times, but it’s hugely popular in design today, too, and not just in film sets. Nowadays, linear lighting makes design statements in settings ranging from hip workplaces and minimalist residences to public plazas. We continue our discussion on how to implement this effect into your own projects using recessed and suspended luminaires.
FAHOUSE by Jean Verville architecte uses a combination of surface-mounted and recessed lighting to emphasize the house’s lines and structural elements; photography by Maxime Brouillet.
RECESSED
Recessed installations boast sleeker or more ethereal looks, but they do require the extra work of carving into the surface, be it a ceiling, wall, floor, sidewalk paving or building façade.
Pure Lighting
Creating a cleaner, crisper sliver of light in drywall planes are plaster-in products, channel systems that are installed in the linear cutouts and then plastered over all around the lens to erase signs of the extrusions.
Pure Lighting
Among our favorite plaster-in systems is Pure Lighting’s TruLine LED series. The system provides glare-free general illumination and comes in two versions: TruLine .5 features a ½-inch-deep aluminum extrusion and 1.6 features a 5/8-inch-deep extrusion. Both are sold in 1-foot increments up to 40 or 20 feet depending on wattage and can be field-cut to any length.
Pure Lighting
What TruLine particularly excels at is turning corners, affording long, uninterrupted lines of light between adjacent walls or the walls and ceilings.
Philips Ledalite
You can achieve a similar look to plaster-in systems by using linear recessed lighting that’s either trimless or near trimless like Philips Ledalite’s TruGroove. It is available with or without trim for use with LEDs and even fluorescent lamping and for symmetric or asymmetric distribution.
Philips Ledalite
To create seamless ribbons of light, TruGroove also offers corner units for outside or inside turns as well as right-angle turns on the same plane. The diffusing lens for this series can be specified flush or regressed.
Poly WeDo Education Institution by Archstudio; photography by Xia Zhi
In-Finity 70 by Flos is versatile in its application as it can be used as a suspension or surface-mounted luminaire but also embedded into the ceiling or wall as a recessed light. Available with or without trim, the fixture can be specified for direct or indirect lighting.
For the streaks of light inside Vegamar Seleccion Wine Shop (also shown at top), Fran Silvestre Arquitectos used Flos In-Finity 70; photo by Diego Opazo.
The above-mentioned products are all great options for indoor environments, but let’s say your project is outdoors or nearby wet zones such as a swimming pool. Consider Organic Lighting’s LiniLED Aeris, an encapsulated linear LED system that’s fully weatherproof and rated to withstand pedestrian traffic. It comes in 10-foot sections and is well suited not only for floors, but also wall and ceiling or soffit applications such as on building façades.
Organic Lighting
Private house in Madrid by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos; photo by Diego Opazo
LINEAR SUSPENSION
When you think of linear suspension lighting, what may come to mind are outdated offices and school classrooms with drab fluorescent fixtures. But the sleek LED luminaires that are offered today are attractive as standalone lights and can be grouped to produce the same lines-of-light effect without the fuss of cutting into the ceiling plane.
LAAB Architects suspended linear fixtures in intriguing compositions to enliven the 9GAG offices in Hong Kong.
Artemide has two handsome suspension products with very different looks depending on what your design calls for. The first is the 2.5 Square System, which, as its name suggests, has a square style particularly defined in the end caps. The LED or fluorescent fixtures are extruded aluminum finished in anodized or white powder coat. Straight and corner connectors are also available to give the appearance of a continuous fixture.
Artemide
Meanwhile, Artemide’s PAD System is a suspension series with a much flatter profile. This design is made possible with ALEF (Advanced Lighting Emitting Film), which electronics company LG uses in television-screen backlighting. The result is a uniform luminous surface.
© Nathaniel McMahon
At the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center of China, architecture firm anySCALE designed a stunning backdrop simply with parallel rows of linear suspension fixtures; photography by Nathaniel McMahon.
© Nathaniel McMahon
Another one of our favorite linear suspension products is Peerless Lighting’s (an Acuity Brand) Open LED. Instead of using a diffuser lens, this gorgeous fixture is simply an open channel from which light seems to emanate. It achieves this magical effect by positioning the LEDs in the bottom of the extrusion’s interior, shining upward into a reflecting chamber that bounces the light back out the opening.
Peerless Lighting