Service line 03

Facade Lighting

A building's night identity, engineered to survive a Saudi summer.

Exterior and architectural schemes using IP-rated, heat-tolerant hardware selected for Gulf conditions. Linear grazing, wall washing, media facades and full RGBW colour control, detailed with the glare and light-spill limits that municipal and developer reviews now ask for.

A retail and leisure block seen from above at dusk, each facade plane lit to its own value against the city behind it
IP65 / IP66
Hardware rating outdoors
45°C+
Ambient the gear is picked for
RGBW
Full colour, not three channels
In more detail

A facade scheme is judged from four hundred metres away by people who will never read the specification, and it is judged again eighteen months later by whoever has to replace the fittings that did not survive. Both judgements are settled at design stage, and the second one is settled by hardware selection.

Riyadh runs past 45°C in the shade and a south elevation runs hotter. Drivers derate, silicone gaskets go hard, and an IP66 rating means nothing if the gland was tightened by somebody in a hurry at 2am. We specify heat-tolerant, correctly rated hardware from manufacturers who publish their thermal data, detail the access before the first bracket is set, and light the building so the glare limits and spill limits in the municipal and developer reviews are met rather than argued about.

How we do it

The four things that decide the outcome

01

Grazing, washing and the surface itself

Grazing at 50mm off the wall to bring out a stone texture, washing from further out to flatten a panel deliberately. Which one a facade wants is decided by the material, and getting it backwards makes an expensive cladding look cheap.

02

Media facades and colour control

RGBW pixel and node systems on their own controller, with the white channel that keeps a national-day green from turning the building mint. Scenes, calendars and event overrides live in the same control layer as the rest of the site.

03

Heat, ingress and access

Thermal headroom, gasket material, cable gland detail and a maintenance route that does not need a cherry picker on a live road. This is the part of a facade scheme that decides whether it still looks right in year five.

04

Glare and spill, on the drawing

Upward light ratio, obtrusive light to neighbouring windows and the view from the road it faces, shown as numbers in the submittal. Reviews increasingly ask for this and the ones that do not still notice when it is wrong.

From our work

What it looks like

Photographs from delivered projects in Riyadh, with illustrations alongside them. Click any frame to see it full size.

Questions we are asked

Before you specify facade lighting

What facade lighting does ARAK deliver in Saudi Arabia?

Exterior and architectural lighting for building facades: grazing and wall washing, media facades and full RGBW colour control, built from IP-rated, heat-tolerant hardware selected for Gulf conditions and detailed to the glare and light-spill limits that municipal and developer reviews ask for.

How do you make facade lighting last in Riyadh's heat?

Riyadh runs past 45°C in the shade and a south elevation runs hotter. We specify heat-tolerant, correctly rated hardware from manufacturers who publish their thermal data, check the gasket material and cable gland detail, and plan the maintenance access before the first bracket is set.

Grazing or washing: which does a facade need?

The material decides. Grazing from about 50mm off the wall brings out the texture of stone; washing from further out lights a panel evenly and flattens it. Getting it backwards makes expensive cladding look cheap.

Can a facade change colour for National Day and events?

Yes. RGBW pixel and node systems run on their own controller, with a white channel that keeps colours true, and scenes, calendars and event overrides sit in the same control layer as the rest of the site.

Will the scheme pass glare and light-spill reviews?

We show the upward light ratio, the obtrusive light reaching neighbouring windows and the view from the road as numbers in the submittal, so the review checks figures rather than opinions.

Tell us what the space has to do.

Send drawings, a fixture schedule, or just the brief. Our Riyadh team will come back with a lighting study and a quotation.

Book a consultation