Breakthroughs in lighting are very likely the most exciting thing happening in design right now. Science is giving us all kinds of new information about the impact of lighting on our emotions, moods and even actions at the same time that the commonization of LED lighting is making it possible for us to act on that research. I am so excited about this opportunity and I want to share it with all of you before you install another compact fluorescent light bulb.
Thinking about lighting isn’t new in our practice. We are just completing a psychiatric hospital where we used a simple tweak to create a much more dynamic space. We used primarily can lights in the patient spaces instead of 2×2 fixtures we had typically used. 2×2 lights distribute light very evenly from the ceiling to the floor. That is what they are designed to do. As a result they allow for maximum consistent lighting levels with the least number of fixtures. Can lights distribute lighting unevenly. With a can light, the floor receives the highest intensity of light with the intensity decreasing upwards on the wall and with the least light distribution on the ceiling. It might sound counterintuitive, but that makes for a more comfortable space. It feels warmer even if the same type of fluorescent lighting is used in each fixture type.
That strategy works well, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. The breakthrough everyone is talking about is Circadian lighting.
The sun’s light changes wavelengths throughout the day. The morning and evening light uses a redder wavelength, while the mid-day light is of a bluer wavelength. We humans are genetically programmed by evolution to respond to this effect. The simple version is that bluer light triggers a chemical response that makes us think it is daytime and we should be hunting. Redder light triggers a response that slows us down for sleep. Our bodies are meant to respond to this natural shift in light throughout the day. As you can imagine, spending so much of our time indoors and looking at computer screens (blue light) really messes with this natural system. Research has shown that in some cases, getting out of cycle with your circadian rhythms can have dire consequences.
At the same time that this research is becoming firmly established, the latest breakthrough in lighting is finally becoming more accessible. LED lighting isn’t new. Being able to install it on a typical project budget is. The reason this is tied to the circadian rhythm discussion is that LED lights can be manufactured at any wavelength. Some can even be tunable so that you can vary the wavelength according to time of day, level of daylight, user input or any other factor you can think of.
We see this as an amazing opportunity. We now have enough information to start to design lighting that can help naturalize people’s moods and emotions by connecting them to their genetically programmed rhythm at the same time that we have the technology available to implement that design. What could be better?
