Life on a Leaf- a total work of art – lighted by daylight

1.12.2009

Have you ever wondered why among all these millions of box shaped buildings, you will never see a house shaped like a shoe, a flower or a leaf?
This is the question, which set out artist Jan-Erik Andersson on a long and adventurous journey to build his own leaf shaped house in the middle of Turku city in Finland. The house project, called Life on a Leaf, is also the art part of Andersson’s studies for a doctorate degree in visual arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Read more…

Daylight lighting by Ilkka Pekanheimo, AD-Lux Oy

One of the most interesting projects of the lighting designer Ilkka Pekanheimo in 2007-2009 was the lighting of artist Jan-Erik Anderssons Life on a Leaf house in Turku. Every leaf spine is lighted with a daylight simulating dimmable light. This method was tested first and found to be excellent.
Ilkka Pekanheimo has promoted the use of daylight simulating light in Finland over 20 years already. Today more and more houses and also work places are completely lighted with full spectrum dimmable daylight lamps. In the Leaf house there are nearly 70 full spectrum Viva-Lite lamps, almost all high power, 49W or 54W lamps.  Bluebell winter garden is lighted with daylight Citizen-LED lamps.
Ilkka also had the idea to build a lighting fixture kit. The fixture is missing the framework. This is a very economical solution, because the electronic ballast of the fixture can be installed within the rooms temperature. If it would been inside of the fixture, the heat of the lamp would make the life time of the electronics much shorter. The lighting of the Leaf house has been realized with this fixture kit with Helvar’s dimmable electronic ballasts.

Ilkka Pekanheimo checks which bulb would suite on of the fixtures.

Ilkka Pekanheimo, who has been a consultant for planning the full spectrum fluorescent daylight system in the house, checks which bulb would suit one of the fixtures.
Because we see better in daylight lighting, our eyes are less tired and the colors of the furnishings are real. The medical studies from Ilkka Pekanheimo have helped a lot in the promotion of full spectrum daylight, which also has significant health effects.

The wooden shelves, which function as a half open wall to the loft, are installed. They still need to be painted. The ornate metal railings, which will include Shawn Decker’s sound installation, are fastened to the concrete bridge. The dimmable lights under the roof beams function beautifully.

This method of lighting further saves energy. As no incandescent and halogen lamps are used, it positively addresses the effects of climate change. All lights, except from the installation in the dining room with 26 retro lamps from the 60:ties and 70:ties, are full spectrum fluorescent lights, many of them dimmable. These lamps can be replaced later with LED-lamps, when incandescent lamps are no more available.

More information.