Richard Kelly (1910-1977) was a pioneer of qualitative lighting design who borrowed existing ideas from perception psychology and theatrical lighting and combined them into a uniform concept. Kelly broke away from the rigid constraints of using uniform illuminance as the central criterium of the lighting design. He replaced the question of lighting quantity with the question of individual qualities of light. These were designed according to a series of lighting functions, which were in turn geared towards the perceiving observer. In the 1950s Kelly made a distinction here between three basic functions: ambient luminescence, focal glow and play of brilliants.

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