The psychological experience of light
Anyone who wants to illuminate a space in an inspiring, creative, beautiful and functional way must consider more things than just the lux value.
- Even versus uneven distribution of light.
- High versus low light intensity.
- Light from above versus ambient light (wall lighting).
- Warm-white light versus cold-white light.
He exposed a large number of users to these various forms of lighting and had them indicate on a scale with opposing terms the degree to which they perceived the space. They had a choice of the following options:
- Pleasant versus unpleasant.
- Public versus private.
- Spatial versus limited.
- Relaxed versus tense.
- Visually clear versus blurry.
The research results showed conclusively that lighting plays an important role in human perception and well-being, and that its impact goes beyond the ability to perform tasks properly or not.
Unfortunately, “energy savings” seems to be the only criterion taken into account these days. Often fluorescent tubes are simply replaced 1-to-1 with LED fluorescent tubes and any lighting plan is absent. Well-being is of secondary importance. While office workers, for example, spend a significant part of the day working under artificial light. Anyone who values employee wellbeing and wants to reduce sickness costs would do well to look beyond 500 lux on the worktop.
* Professor John Flynn’s research career focused on the psychological impact of architectural lighting. His findings were highly relevant in the 1970s, when there was an energy crisis. Attempts to reduce energy consumption through lighting modifications resulted in gloomy spaces with a negative experience of residence. Flynn’s work showed that lighting had a more important role than simply adequate light on a work surface and that a more holistic view was needed that would recognize the impact of lighting on psychological comfort and well-being.