On average, people spend about 90% of their time indoors. Much of that time is spent at work sites and in offices, with artificial light illuminating everything we do. How lighting affects health and well-being has been the subject of considerable research, and some consensus has been reached. For instance, cool blue lights are not conducive for rest in the evening and glaring lights can cause eye strain.

But creating a healthy, comfortable experience for many workers across their eight-hour workdays requires a lot more complexity. Some of the focus areas in new construction and renovations center around lighting that works with our circadian rhythms, mimicking natural cycles of daylight or reducing eye strain while also
illuminating our workspace.

Coworking site WeWork, New York, has established a robust set of lighting standards for each type of space it provides, to ensure its members have the best and most productive experience possible, according to a WeWork spokesperson. 

For example, “in lounges, we create a visual hierarchy by setting higher target illumination in public gathering areas and lower target illumination in more intimate spaces.” Additionally, they said, office spaces are lit more evenly to support screen-based tasks and promote visual comfort.

Today, though, many office buildings opt for a lower-cost approach that offers uniform light, in all places, at all times. Advancements in lighting technology, especially with the advent of LEDs, may be changing that tradition. LEDs enable greater controls around color and brightness adjustments.

Lighting for alertness and mood

Lighting companies now provide options that address current knowledge on circadian rhythm. Raja Vennila, head of offer management, Genlyte Solutions, Signify, said having the right light at the right time of the day can help increase alertness, facilitate concentration and boost engagement. Signify has a system known as NatureConnect that brings an approximation of natural light as it varies throughout the day to aid biological clocks and boost focus and mood.

It’s worth noting, he added, that those working in most office spaces have their own unique lighting needs and preferences. One trend has been more personalized illumination for each desk or cubicle for individualized comfort.

Optics are another important consideration, Vennila said. The luminaire needs to distribute uniform light with low glare for a more visually comfortable experience. One option developed by Signify is BioUp, which is melanopic lighting intended to deliver ideal light output according to circadian rhythms. 

“It stimulates nonvisual receptors in the eye” known as the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells or IP RGCs, he said, “which are particularly sensitive to blue light in the spectrum, influencing alertness and mood.”

OSHA guidelines

In the United States, guidelines have begun framing how lighting should be laid out for comfort and well-being. OSHA makes several recommendations about how best to light business work station environments to enhance employee performance.

OSHA warns that bright lights shining on computer screens cause an effect known as washout, leading to eye strain. Ceiling lights installed in rows should be parallel to workers’ line of sight. OSHA also recommends reducing light intensity in some spaces that may have deployed an overabundance of luminaires. Supplemental desk lighting is another recommendation.

The agency additionally indicates that natural light should enter workspaces but not directly flood into a user’s view.

Meeting the needs for environmental controls

For lighting designers, creating a comfortable workspace that promotes well-being begins after the architect has completed their work. It’s only then they step in to consider the space in which they must engineer the best light experience. Maria Dautant, lighting designer and senior associate at HLB Lighting Design, New York, works globally and finds lighting preferences and requirements vary according to culture, costs and education.

I think architects really like the fact that luminaires have become thinner and thinner, and smaller and smaller, because you can create these environments where the lights don’t become the main element in this space and you can almost make them disappear.”

—Maria Dautant, HLB Lighting Design

“There has been a lot of discussion on whether we should try to bring what happens outside into indoor environments,” she said. 

Light levels and correlated color temperature change throughout the day and human bodies are unconsciously acclimated to that. Some studies have found that people work better and have an improved mood when they have some level of natural light. The question is just how well workers respond to lighting that shifts in color and intensity throughout the day without the individual’s input. 

“All of us like to have at least a certain level of control around our environment,” Dautant said.

Some people work well in a darker environment with light focused on their work. Others feel like they need to be in a bright environment. Some people like warm light, and other people like cool light. 

“So how do we mix in all of these preferences?” she said. “There’s still so much research happening around this one topic that we as lighting designers at this point in time can only recommend certain trends that have been proven to improve our productivity and well-being. If the client wants to move forward with that, then, fantastic—we will go ahead and do it.”

Budget constraints and regional preferences

Many building owners’ budgets don’t allow for some of the effects technology offers, such as lighting that shifts throughout the day and even follows the pattern of the of the sunlight at different times of the year.

Lighting is a cultural question as well, Dautant said. 

“When the client doesn’t really know the best option, we usually offer a neutral white lighting” that offers less flexibility to make changes, but meets the visual needs of the space. “In the United States, we see a lot of luminous and linear luminaires” that offer opal style light diffusers, she said. “They just create this very clean-slate line of light.”

In Europe and some parts of the Middle East, the preference is around prismatic lenses, which don’t provide the pristine line of light, but create a pattern of LEDs that offers a sparkle effect. As LEDs can be bright, luminaires with small louvers are becoming popular.

Dautant said that the relatively small size of LED fixtures make life easier for those designing the physical space.

“I think architects really like the fact that luminaires have become thinner and thinner, and smaller and smaller, because you can create these environments where the lights don’t become the main element in this space and you can almost make them disappear,” she said.

Awareness of emotional well-being

Just how aware project owners and architects are about lighting design and its impact on occupant wellness varies widely, said Cherine Saroufim, the president’s selected director for the International Association of Lighting Designers board of directors. Saroufim is an interior architect and lighting designer at Atelier Saroufim (formerly known as IDEP Consultant), an architectural interior design firm with presence in the Middle East and more recently in Redondo Beach, Calif.

Interest in emotional well-being created by the building experience differs from one company, culture and country to another. Often, Saroufim said, occupant health and well-being “is a conversation that we are bringing to them,” because the project or building owner has no knowledge of lighting’s effect on work experiences.

One basic example centers around the innate expectation for light to evolve throughout the day. Whether natural or artificial, circadian lighting benefits mood, health and productivity—whether the occupants are office workers or school students. And while many building owners are interested, “they’re not necessarily wanting to invest in it,” she said.

Some buildings with the budget and an innovative approach, however, have pioneered such projects. Atelier Saroufim earned an IES Merit award for work that took on the very challenge of health and well-being at Lebanese American University’s School of Architecture and Design. The work was accomplished a decade ago, but continues to benefit today’s students.

The college, where students often spend long hours, needed some upgrades, Saroufim recalled. The cafeteria was fully enclosed, poorly lit with no natural light and noisy, making for unpleasant dining for students or staff who used it.

“The biggest problem the university was facing was students used to go in and have no notion of time because you have no view to the outside,” she said.

So Atelier Saroufim created three artificial skylights that would fill the space. These illuminated “light wells” use 28W T5 fluorescent lamps (LEDs were still early on the scene) on a control system that transitioned light levels over the day. In the morning, to offer a relaxing environment, the lighting levels were lower with warmer colors. At noon the fixtures adjusted to a higher color temperature and 6,500K of light to keep diners alert, encouraging them to eat faster and empty the space for others. The company also applied sound buffers 4 meters from the floor.

The turnover in the first two months after opening the new cafeteria was the same volume as the full previous year.

“Students enjoyed coming in, it was easy for them to leave because they had a notion of time, the environment was fun and it linked their circadian rhythm,” Saroufim said.

The team also designed smart classrooms, not initially with daylight sensors but with the components needed so the lighting could be updated or adjusted depending on whether class was taking place physically in each room or online.

Overall, the company provides more health-focused lighting in specific parts of the world. The United States is one area that shows interest in the effort. However, adjusting light for health purposes can often have a budgetary benefit. Many buildings and their jurisdictions have found that high light levels can be excessive, as well as unnecessary or even annoying for occupants.

“Since 2020, we’ve been lowering the light levels everywhere” to bring energy consumption and costs down, Saroufim said. Where many systems were once specified at 6–7W per square meter, interior design today is averaging about 3W per square meter.

Leveraging existing daylight will be another pursuit that could boost wellness and reduce energy consumption in the future, she added.

“It’s all about how we control that daylight and how can we make use of it without making people uncomfortable—that is really the key with daylight,” Dautant said.

For contractors, there is a role in understanding the needs of a building’s occupants, and educating customers about the options. Vennila urges contractors to partner with lighting manufacturers to help customers enjoy the value of available solutions.

stock.adobe.com / mast3r