Illuminating the walls of a space is a crucial design element for making spaces feel warm and increasing depth and dimension. Making walls glow is a way to balance the space and make a room feel like a complete environment. It also creates visual contrast and makes a space feel more natural.
Lighting designers have various tools to create wall glow, from wall washers to recessed linear lighting. However, there have always been challenges when it comes to dedicated perimeter lighting.
- Creating a Perimeter wall glow means mounting light in a cove pocket. The contractor must either build that pocket, which adds expense, or there needs to be a pre-built extrusion for the lighting that builds this pocket.
- Precise measurements (field dimensions) are required to supply a pre-built cove slot, and they are often difficult to obtain.
- Corners are not always square and require field dimensions for fabrication
- Ceiling coordination can be problematic when ACT systems are employed.
- Cross-corner lighting creates nasty cuts of light in the corners of the room.
JLC-Tech makes luminaires designed for easy coordination with a variety of ceiling types. The new Giro family is designed to make perimeter lighting easier to specify and install in a few ways. One of the standout features of GIRO is its simplicity. The housing is installed just like typical perimeter molding, integrating seamlessly into the ceiling assembly as the ceiling is constructed. This eliminates the need for pre-built corners, angles, shapes, or grid types, making the specification process straightforward and hassle-free.
The housing is provided in lengths that can be field cut to size, allowing maximum on-site flexibility. This means that installers can quickly adapt the product to fit the unique requirements of each project, ensuring a perfect fit every time.
For specifiers: This eliminates a complicated shop drawing process
For Contractors: Dead Simple Installation
For Distributors: Easy to Order
By shipping the housing in advance, GIRO allows for a streamlined installation process that aligns with the construction timeline. This eliminates the need to build custom openings in the ceiling for support, reducing labor costs and installation time.
Beyond Installation – Giro Looks Awesome
Giro is available with three different optics (and one bonus optic).
Ambient – to enhance the ambient light in the room by casting light into the space and down the wall.
Wall Glow: This creates a luminosity at the upper third of the wall, which gently falls down the vertical surface.
Grazer: This is a dedicated grazing optic meant to keep all of the light tight to the vertical surface.
Bonus Optic – Quiet corners
One of the consistent complaints I get from Lighting Designers is that when they specify a wall wash or graze system, at the corners, a harsh triangle forms where the beams of light intersect along the walls. JLC Tech has accounted for this with their new Quiet Corner optic (coming soon).
The Light Engine for Giro
JLC-Tech uses a low-voltage light engine powered by remote 24V drivers. The engines are slightly shorter than the standard housings. The lengths should be specified in the part number, and JLC tech will verify the lengths of the light engines to be installed in the slots. The engines are provided in nominal 2’ and 4’ sections clipped into the extrusion.
Giro is More Than a Perimeter Light
By offering a universal mounting clip for all ACT systems and independently anchoring to the walls to create a main runner, Giro acts as a ceiling support and a complete perimeter lighting system. We love how it solves so many installation and specification concerns and makes it much simpler to design and install high-quality perimeter lighting.
At SDA, we have samples of Giro ready to go. We’d love to stop by for a deeper dive into how to make this system work for your next project.
