Fine Science is an independent, UK-based lighting design consultancy. We offer architectural lighting design for various types of interior and exterior space, and also daylight advice, calculations and reports.

Projects include workplaces, private residences, schools, universities, retail, exhibition and exterior spaces. 
This website contains a small selection of non-confidential projects.

Much work is undertaken under contract to other design companies.

If you have a project enquiry or would like further information, please do not hesitate to make contact here.

The company director, Luke Smith-Wightman, has 22 years’ experience designing lighting schemes and lighting products.

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Operating from London and East Sussex, UK.

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Good Lighting

Good lighting has the power to transform the perception of a space and the objects and people within it. More specifically, it will make a restaurant more attractive than its competitors, it will enhance retail merchandise, or create a more productive and healthier workplace.

In the home, good lighting will create brightness where it is needed: building visual scenes with appealing contrast ratios - whilst working with the human circadian system to promote a healthy sleep / wake cycle. 

Whatever the project - with better sleep, happier customers, higher sales, more productive workers, lower energy consumption and less maintenance, good lighting pays for itself.

Intelligent design is, therefore, a profitable investment, not an overhead.

Good lighting does not happen by accident, and when achieved it often goes unnoticed – because it is seamlessly integrated.

Good lighting is what we do.

What’s important

Brightness is a visual sensation which is often confused with the lighting metric luminance.
Creating appropriate brightness and colour for an interior or exterior space requires knowledge of the users, their intended activities and response to light, the material finishes, hours of use, the performance of lighting equipment and integration with daylight.
Effective management of brightness and colour is the role of the lighting designer.

Less is better. We endeavour to minimise the quantity and variation of lighting equipment, to keep it as discreet as possible and prevent over-lighting. Unless it is the intention (e.g. with feature installations) lighting should not dominate: it should complement and enhance.

Quality design documentation. Clear drawings; integration details; detailed luminaire schedules – these make life easier for the design team and building contractors, and reduce the likelihood of errors based on assumption.

The lighting design process typically runs as follows:

• Briefing by client/architect followed by production and presentation of lighting concepts.

• With approval of lighting concepts, detail design can begin. This will result in lighting layout drawings, detail drawings and schedules of luminaires and lighting control requirements. If required, a detailed design report may also be produced.

• With approval of detailed design proposals, the project can be costed and tendered for construction. 
  
  

• Site monitoring, snagging and commissioning.

Independence

Fine Science, nor its directors or employees, does not take financial inducements from luminaire manufacturers or suppliers as an incentive to specify particular products. Such  supplements to stated fees, which may be labelled as ‘rebates’ or ‘design fees’ distorts the process of fair competition between design consultancies and diminishes merit in the product selection process. 

The sole aim on all projects is to specify the most appropriate equipment to achieve the desired lit effect – within an agreed budget.

Sectors:

• workplace
  
• hospitality
  
• residential
  
• retail
• education
  
• exhibition
  
• laboratory
  
• public realm
  
• sports
  
• emergency lighting
  
• daylight

Daylight

In most types of space where people work or live, daylight is appreciated as a natural, powerful and dynamic source of full spectrum light: and it’s free.
To help an architect understand the daylight performance of their building design, we provide advice on the basis of current best-practice guidance, daylight calculations and years of experience.

We offer a flexible and responsive service: providing regular feedback on design options so that the building design develops quickly and efficiently.

From a few hours of ‘light touch’ work for one space, to large-scale developments with hundreds of rooms requiring testing of different daylight strategies. Most work can be accommodated.

Fine Science offers two types of daylight service:

1. Iterative daylight calculations

With involvement from the very beginning of building design, multiple calculations can be performed to help the architect understand how much skylight and sunlight will enter their building.

The aims are:

a) to ensure interior spaces have adequate daylight conditions (quantity and distribution) given the many influencing factors,

b) to assess the impact of solar shading on daylight ingress.

This process of early involvement, with repeated quick calculations, can mean a small amount of work has an enduring, positive impact on the building.

Calculations may be undertaken to predict daylight factor and climate-based daylight metrics (sDA, UDI, ASE).

2. Daylight reports for the planning process

Clients and planning authorities frequently require evidence of:

a) the impact of a new building on its neighbours (i.e. overshadowing)

b) whether a building has good daylight conditions, that certain rooms exhibit acceptable daylight factors, spatial daylight autonomy or useful daylight illuminance

c) Compliance with standards and codes (BSI, BREEAM, LEED)

We produce the daylight assessment reports that planners require.
Please contact us for more information.