david k warfel
The Gift of Light must be fully unwrapped to be understood. Inside the gift box of white light are all the colors of the rainbow, only visible when we split the wavelengths apart with a prism or raindrops. The power of light is also multi-layered, affecting our lives in many ways. My approach to better... Continue Reading →
I like to believe that I am a forward thinker and not a person who looks behind longingly at The Good Old Days. Most of the time. When it comes to architecture, I love where the world is headed. We're seeing modern homes with large expanses of glass, schools with huge amounts of daylight, factories... Continue Reading →
I believe light is a gift that can help us live better lives. A powerful combination of human history, personal experience, and deepening research backs me up: light can help us sleep better, wake up easier, heal faster, feel happier, suffer less pain, reduce the symptoms of aging...and the list goes on. My teenage sons... Continue Reading →
It is winter, between Christmas and New Year's, and a perfect time to write about lighting and darkness. All around town, otherwise nondescript homes are festooned with thousands of tiny lights. Twinkle lights on downtown trees add glow to the sidewalks and storefronts, and in many living rooms are even more trees and more... Continue Reading →
Last night I was honored to deliver the keynote address at the American Institute of Architects Illinois Prairie conference in Carbondale. I had fun tying together thoughts from a number of blog posts and writing this “sermon.” Lighting is a product. It costs you money. Light is a gift. Light can help you live better. When I was... Continue Reading →
Experts tell me I should consider lighting as "the jewelry of the home." This has always bothered me instinctually, but it wasn't until a few days ago that I understood why. Jewelry is useless. Wait, wait, I am not advocating that we give up jewelry on our bodies and in our homes. I happen to... Continue Reading →
It is late at night- too late- and I am weary from a solid stretch of too much work and not enough rest. It feels too familiar. When I am this tired, I tend to ruminate on my purpose in the world. Recently, I have come to believe that my purpose in my professional life... Continue Reading →
We used to have a better language for light, but lately we stick to words like LED, lumens, and color temperature. Necessary, perhaps, but not particularly inspiring. In history, we used words like Helios, Prometheus, Zeus, and Ra that belied our dependence on light. We organized our temples, our festivals, our stonehenges around light. We wrote... Continue Reading →
"Do we really need all those lights?" If you ask me to help lay out lighting for your living room (or kitchen, or bedroom, or bathroom...), the probability of me increasing the quantity of light fixtures is about a million to one. Increasing the quantity of lights does not mean there will be more light,... Continue Reading →
