It’s Not One-Size-Fits-All. Here’s How to Think About It.
If you’re specifying lighting for an exterior project—a commercial plaza, a hotel landscape, or a public walkway—the first question isn’t “which BEGA fixture?” It’s “what is this space actually doing?”
I’ve been on the quality side of this equation for a while. I review specs for lighting packages, and I’ve seen projects where the wrong fixture choice costs everyone time and money. A beautiful bollard in the wrong spot? It becomes a tripping hazard. A flood light that’s too wide? It washes out the architecture you’re trying to highlight.
There’s no universal answer. The right fixture depends on three things: the surface you’re lighting, the user traffic, and the desired effect. Period.
Here’s how I break it down for our internal reviews. It’s a simple decision tree.
Scenario A: Guiding Traffic Along a Path or Plaza
This is the most common request. The client wants light to define a walkway without turning the space into an airport runway. The key specification metric here is mounting height and spacing.
The typical choice: BEGA bollard lights.
Bollards work because they create a low-level, horizontal light distribution. At 1-meter height, they define a path edge without spilling light up into the trees or into adjacent windows. I’ve reviewed dozens of landscape lighting layouts, and the ones that look cohesive almost always use a consistent bollard spacing ratio—usually 3x to 4x the mounting height.
Honestly, I’m not sure why some specs ignore this ratio. My best guess is that designers get caught up in the fixture’s look and forget the spacing math. A $400 bollard spaced 6 meters apart on a 1-meter tall fixture? You’ll get dark pools. That’s a waste of a good fixture.
One thing I see overlooked: the ground plane. If your path has a reflective surface (wet concrete, polished stone), a bollard with a symmetric distribution will create glare. You want an asymmetric distribution. BEGA offers that in several of their bollard lines. It’s a small spec change that makes a huge difference in user comfort.
Best for:
- Public walkways
- Hotel entrance drives
- Plaza perimeters where you need vertical definition
Not ideal for:
- Narrow corridors (bollards become obstructions)
- Spaces where you need wall washing
Scenario B: Washing a Façade or Highlighting a Feature
Now you’re not guiding people—you’re creating a visual anchor. Maybe it’s a building entrance, a sculpture, or a textured stone wall. The goal is to make the surface visible at night without the source becoming the focal point.
The typical choice: BEGA recessed or ground-mounted uplights, often with flood optics.
Before you finalize the fixture, ask: what is a flood light? It’s a luminaire with a beam angle wide enough (typically 40° to 120°) to spread light over a large surface. In landscape lighting, a flood light can be an uplight in the ground or a surface-mounted bracket on a wall. The key difference from a spot light? Flood lights have less punch per square foot but cover more area.
Here’s where the choice gets nuanced:
- If it’s a flat, uniform wall (e.g., a painted concrete façade): A BEGA flood with a 60° beam works well. Mount it 6–10 inches from the wall, spaced 8–12 feet apart.
- If it’s a textured surface (e.g., natural stone, brick): You want a tighter beam angle (40° or less) and closer spacing. Otherwise, the texture creates dark shadows that make the wall look messy.
I ran a blind test with our review team: same wall, same power draw, two different beam angles. 78% identified the 40° beam as “more dramatic” without knowing the difference. The cost increase was about $12 per fixture. On a 50-fixture run, that’s $600 for measurably better perception. Worth it.
Best for:
- Building entrances
- Signage
- Art features
Not ideal for:
- Large open plazas (you’ll need too many fixtures)
- Spaces where light trespass is a concern (floods spill)
Scenario C: Illuminating a Large Open Area (Parking, Plaza, Courtyard)
This is the toughest scenario. You need general illumination for safety and orientation, but you don’t want a parking lot look. The client might ask for “bollards everywhere” or “floods on every pole.” Neither works well alone.
The hybrid approach: BEGA switch light fixtures combined with bollards or floods.
“Switch light” is a term that gets thrown around loosely. In our spec world, a switch light is a luminaire that can be switched between different distribution patterns—usually from a wide flood to a narrower spot. This gives you flexibility on the pole: one fixture, multiple aiming angles.
For a courtyard, I’ve seen this work well:
- BEGA poles at 4–5 meters with switch light heads for general area coverage
- Bollards at the edges to define the boundary
- Maybe one or two flood lights for accent features
The risk here? Overlapping beam angles. If the switch light’s flood pattern extends into the bollard zone, you’ll get a washed-out edge. I rejected a batch from a vendor in Q1 2023 for exactly this issue—they had the drivers set to 100% on both systems, and the overlap created a hotspot 3 meters wide. Total redo cost: $4,500.
Best for:
- Large plazas with mixed activity zones
- Hotel courtyards
- Parking area perimeters
Not ideal for:
- Intimate seating areas (too much light)
- Spaces with strict dark-sky compliance (switch lights aren’t always fully shielded)
How To Know Which Scenario You’re In
I review lighting specs pretty regularly, and I’ve noticed a pattern: people try to solve all three scenarios with one fixture family. They pick a bollard for everything because it looks clean, or they pick a flood because it’s powerful. That’s how you end up with a plaza that either feels like a runway or a dark maze.
Ask yourself these three questions:
- What’s the primary activity in this space? Moving people (scenario A), looking at something (scenario B), or just existing safely (scenario C)?
- What’s the surface? A hardscape path (bollards) vs. a vertical surface (floods) vs. a mixed surface (hybrid).
- What’s the budget for mounting and wiring? In-ground floods require more trenching. Pole-mounted switch lights need taller poles. Bollards need straight runs.
If you’re still not sure, favor a hybrid approach with a clear zone strategy. That’s what we do on our $18,000 projects. It adds a bit of complexity but avoids the headache of a full redo.
Take this with a grain of salt: I’ve been doing this for about four years, and I still get surprised by how well a simple bollard spacing adjustment can solve a glare problem. Don’t overthink the fixture spec—focus on the distribution and spacing first. The rest follows.