“Houses of Worship Light the Night” sounds like a beautiful event or initiative where different religious institutions come together to illuminate their buildings or spaces as a symbol of unity, hope, and peace. It could involve lighting up the exteriors with colorful lights, candles, or lanterns, creating a visually stunning display that represents the diversity and harmony among various faith communities.
When designing a new church or renovating an existing worship facility, designers are paying closer attention to exterior lighting than ever before.
Exterior lighting can emphasize a church’s role as the beacon to the community, allowing the church to have more life—even at night. That’s why exterior lighting should showcase the building’s features, provide lighting for entrances, exits, and landscape features, and provide sufficient light for safe pedestrian traffic along stairs, walkways, and parking facilities.
With most churches being located near residential areas it’s important to keep the light from trespassing into neighboring properties. The lighting levels should also be coordinated with any security equipment to provide adequate light levels for proper security camera operation.
LEDs everywhere
You are now seeing a lot of LED wall sconces, ground-mounted LED flood lights and LED floods mounted on and hidden by building architecture to highlight the features of the exterior and illuminate the building entrances and exits, These LED accent lights can also be color changing to provide different looks.
Additionally, low-level LED lighting such as step lights, bollards, and landscape lighting are also being used to provide light for walkways, stairs, and landscape features.
Have you noticed festoon lighting (LED string lights) has become popular for outdoor seating and gathering areas, and many churches are using decorative seasonal lighting outside, such as colored LEDs for Christmas or white LEDs for Easter,.
Many churches are taking the opportunity to mitigate towards LED fixtures or retrofits to save on energy consumption and create a lighting solution that is versatile and complements the structure. Whether it’s a modern church building or an institution with a more traditional style/construction, the goal remains to highlight the building and unique elements that set the structure apart and draw in people passing by. We look to highlight specific articular elements such as monuments, statues, stain glass installations, etc.
U.S. Energy Recovery, based in Phoenix, Arizona, helps churches meet their energy-saving and sustainability goals with energy-efficient solutions such as LED exterior lighting, and has helped 45 churches retrofit their lighting. For example, one of the largest churches in the state of Oklahoma, and the company’s team helped guide them from the initial audit and design to the project execution and installation.
If a church was looking for ways to maximize their savings and utility rebate, design an outdoor lighting system that included individual occupancy sensors on each outdoor LED light. By doing this, your Church has now increased the lifespan of the system and further reduced their annual energy and maintenance costs.
Solutions to churches’ challenges
Delving deeper into exterior lighting design churches, there are some critical considerations to address. For example, to accommodate festoon or seasonal lighting in past projects, get specifically designed for electrical outlets in strategic locations to give the church flexibility for different scenarios.
Work to integrate the lighting needs into the overall design aesthetic then Decorative and appropriately scaled entry lights or lanterns that match the character and style of the church design can give some helpful light and add punch to the design in strategic locations. We also like to make sure the interior lobby lighting creates a nice glow to the outside at night to showcase activities and gathering that may be happening inside.
The way to do it right, is to determine the intent of the lighting and know the church’s audience. Questions to ask include: “Is the lighting serving to simply light or enhance?” “To provide security or highlight certain structures?” “Should it draw in the passerby?” “What do you want users to see first when they look at the building?” “How should the lighting solution make them feel about the space?” These key questions need to be answered when coming up with a lighting solution.
Unity and Solidarity
It brings together people from different religious backgrounds, fostering a sense of community and solidarity. In a world often divided by religious differences, events like these emphasize the shared values and aspirations that unite humanity.
Celebration of Diversity
Each house of worship can showcase its unique cultural and religious traditions through the lighting arrangements, reflecting the diversity of beliefs and practices within the community.
Symbol of Peace and Hope
The illuminated buildings can serve as beacons of peace and hope, particularly in times of uncertainty or conflict. They send a powerful message of resilience and optimism, reminding people of the enduring power of faith and collective action.
Promotion of Interfaith Dialogue
Events like “Houses of Worship Light the Night” provide opportunities for interfaith dialogue and understanding. By coming together in a spirit of cooperation, participants can learn from one another, dispel misconceptions, and build bridges of empathy and respect.
Shining a light on security
To keep people safe, pedestrian walkways and parking lots should be well illuminated with light levels coordinated with the requirements of the security equipment, the local environment, usage, and any community or local restrictions.
The light levels should also meet the recommendations of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and avoid light trespass onto adjoining properties. The lighting fixtures would include low level pedestrian lighting on 8-foot to 10-foot poles, bollards, step lights, as well as area lighting pole mounted fixtures, all LED light sources. Coordinating code-required exterior emergency lights with a church’s entry doors and features so it’s not an eyesore.
Design the lighting systems to provide the recommended light levels of the IES with special attention to walkways and stairs. LED flood lighting is ideal for security lighting.
Several manufacturers that provide options for flood lights with multiple form factors, optics, and color-tuning/color changing capability, This provides a flexible solution that brings attention to the building without overtaking the space.
Overall, initiatives like these not only create memorable experiences for participants but also contribute to the broader goals of fostering harmony, understanding, and social cohesion within diverse communities.