The importance of lighting in office design

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The importance of lighting in office design



Everybody knows the importance of good and bad lighting, whether it’s for your selfies on Instagram or for the office space at work, and it’s crucial that the correct lighting is used in each environment effectively. Lighting can maximize your mood, improve work ethos, as well as creating the perfect office space. According to The National Center for Biotechnology Information, great lighting can produce “potent biological and therapeutic effects” among workers, whilst bad lighting can cause any number of issues, from eye strain to severe headaches, so it’s really in any employer’s best interest to really utilize lighting features in the office effectively. So, today we’re focusing our attention on the importance of lighting in office design, highlighting (pardon the pun) some top tips about how to keep your employees happy! First up:

Natural lighting:
Two of any architects’ favorite buzz words, and quite rightly so too! Natural light has been proven to have the most positive effect on workers in any capacity. So, when it comes to office design it’s crucial that this natural lighting is taken advantage of through the use of windows and sky lights, and if budget permits, floor to ceiling glass paneling should be incorporated throughout the office building. The sun is free, so make use of it!

Lamps & dimmer lighting:
The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime, so it’s nice to feel at home when in your workplace. One way to do that is by featuring stylish, complimentary lamps throughout the office space. Often, excessively bright lights can be distracting for workers as it takes longer to focus their eyes on computer screens, so the inclusion of dimmer lamps not only produces a much more relaxed feel but it enables people to work at ease and focus on their work at hand. As well as this, it’s been suggested that dimmer lighting, such as the newly fashionable low hanging lamp shades, can make people work much more creatively – a cheap solution that offers a multitude of perks!

Blue lights:
Blue lights get a bad reputation for damaging eyes and keeping teenagers up at night on their phones, but in a recent study by Mid Sweden University it’s claimed that blue lights are more effective than caffeine. So, put down your coffee and switch your bulbs blue! The case found that “blue light and caffeine demonstrated distinct effects on aspects of psycho-motor function”. The perfect cure to any sleepy worker. While the blue lights do sound like a dream come true, they are however quite disruptive of sleep if overused, so these lights may be best used throughout the morning hours, switching to softer lights in the afternoon.

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