This third edition of SLL Lighting Guide 9: Lighting for communal residential buildings includes detail of new types of multiple-occupancy building, the latest findings on the effect of lighting on wellbeing, and advice on how to minimise obtrusive light from external lighting. All sections have been updated to reflect the switch to LED light sources.
This Lighting Guide is for the use of anyone involved in specifying luminaires and lighting systems for multi-occupancy residential buildings; it aims to provide practical guidance and demonstrate good practice.
Those responsible for communal residential buildings have to consider energy efficiency, safety and security as well as the welfare of people who live there.
This Lighting Guide provides practical guidance and demonstrates good practice with recommendations on how to meet statutory requirements whilst achieving a pleasant ambience for residents in their living areas.
Multi-occupancy residential buildings can consist of rented or private low or high-rise apartments; student accommodation; bed and breakfast establishments; social housing; NHS staff accommodation; boarding schools; children’s homes; domestic violence refuges; substance abuse recovery units; bail hostels; and night shelters for the homeless. A major category is residential care homes, including retirement homes, sheltered housing, assisted living, extra care homes, nursing homes, dementia care units, and hospices.
This guide does not cover hotels, Ministry of Defence (MoD) housing, or the various types of secure accommodation (see chapter 21 of the SLL Lighting Handbook (2012) for details). Hotels generally have their own corporate specification for lighting; the MoD has specifications for its residential buildings, as do the operators of secure accommodation. Nevertheless, many of the spaces in these sectors are similar to other multi-occupancy residential buildings and so guidance in this publication will still be relevant.