In other words, lighting that creates the right kind of illumination for the space and that calls attention to the beauty of the architecture rather than to itself. Porter holds a degree in design from Kansas City Art Institute, Lindberg has a fine arts degree, and the other two members of Derek Porter Studio are electrical engineers. Inside River City Studio, a graphic design and marketing firm in the River Market area, a serpentine low-voltage rail meanders overhead through the work space. Small halogen lamps are affixed to the rail above each work station, allowing employees to adjust their own light. That project, designed and built by Derek Porter Studio, won an award for interior lighting from the Heart of America Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and will be featured in the fall lighting supplement of Architectural Record magazine.
People talk more softly in dimmer light.
Unlike track lighting, where the tracks hide the cables, low-voltage rails or cables actually have electricity passing through them, but not enough that you can feel it. When Bruce Hartman, curator of the Gallery of Art at Johnson County Community College, needed to light works of art on the walls of his home, Porter used a low-voltage system similar to the one at River City Studio. And yet, even people who can't afford to hire a lighting designer should probably give more thought to the lighting in their homes than they do. The problems above are easy to remedy, Porter says, provided you can identify the kind of light you need and find a way to get it there. Simply bringing more lights into each room will provide you with more options and flexibility.