Integrate Light into Architecture

Design With Light  /  Design intent  /  Integrate light into architecture
Design intent · Turn a surface into a source

Turn a surface into the light.

Make a ceiling, wall, shelf or stair glow evenly — even in an 8 mm cavity — or run high-CRI linear light through joinery, coves and reveals. Rosco Custom LitePad and RoscoLED Tape build the light into the architecture, with the source hidden.

Luminous backlit ceiling and surfaces created with Rosco Custom LitePad
4 Times Square lobby, New York — Rosco Custom LitePad + RoscoLED Tape. Design: HOK. Photo: Anthony Friend. Courtesy of Rosco Spectrum.
The intent

When the light should be the surface

Sometimes the design doesn’t want a fitting at all — no downlight, no visible strip, no fixture reading on the ceiling. It wants a surface that simply glows: a luminous panel, a backlit stone wall, an edge that draws a line of light through the joinery.

That calls for two integrated approaches. Rosco Custom LitePad is an edge-lit panel — remarkably thin, uniformly bright, and cut to shape — that turns a plane into an even light source, even where there’s only millimetres of depth. RoscoLED Tape delivers high-CRI, consistent linear light for coves, reveals and joinery where colour quality and evenness matter.

Both are made to disappear into the build, leaving only the light.

How it’s made

Two ways to build light in

Ultra-thin luminous panels

Custom LitePad edge-lights a panel to an even glow in very shallow depths — cut to size and shape for ceilings, walls, shelves and stairs.

High-CRI linear light

RoscoLED Tape runs consistent, high colour-rendering light through coves, reveals and joinery — engineered for architectural integration.

Source concealed by design

Both are made to be built in and hidden, so the architecture reads as a glowing surface rather than a lit one.

Reference project

A lobby that glows from its surfaces

The lobby of 4 Times Square in Manhattan uses more than 200 Custom LitePad panels, with RoscoLED Tape, to create luminous backlit surfaces that greet visitors — light that reads as architecture, not fixtures.

Because LitePad is so shallow and uniform, it fits where a conventional luminaire never could, and delivers the even, sourceless glow the design called for.

Color-changing cove and accent illumination created with RoscoLED Tape
RoscoLED Tape integrated architectural lighting. Courtesy of Rosco Spectrum.
Designing it in

What to resolve early

Integrated light lives inside the build, so it’s best resolved with the joinery and ceiling details. CFATS can advise before construction locks in.

Cavity depth & build-up

LitePad’s thinness is its advantage — but the exact depth, diffuser and backing affect evenness. We match the panel to the detail.

Colour temperature & CRI

For joinery and hospitality, colour quality matters. RoscoLED Tape offers high-CRI and tunable-white options we can specify to the brief.

Shape, size & cutting

Custom LitePad is made to shape. Complex outlines, cut-outs and panel joins are worth planning with the fabricator early.

Power, dimming & access

Driver location, dimming protocol and future access to the concealed source all need designing in before the surface is closed up.

Want the surface to be the light?

Tell us the detail — the ceiling, wall, stair or joinery — and we’ll help you integrate the right Rosco solution, then specify and supply it in Australia.