LIGHTING FOR
WELLBEING AND PRODUCTIVITY BY KAZZAR LIGHTING
Have you ever considered what the effect the lighting in your workplace is having on your health and well-being?
Recent studies and research show how the exposure to wrong light at the wrong time of day effects our daily routine and, thus can effect our ability to be at our best when it comes to productivity and feeling of well-being.
We now spend more time working indoors than any time in our evolutionary past, thanks to the invention of the light bulb. Humans are naturally an outdoor animal and therefore quite dependant on receiving natural light from the sun and sky, to feel awake and at our best biologically. However, all too often, we now remove ourselves from the natural world and spend much of our time in an office space that does little to keep us in harmony with the outdoors, effectively working in the cave.
Of course it doesn’t have to be this way. Just by recognizing the key elements from the natural world can enable us to make better use of today's lighting technologies. For example, our brains are attuned to having a bright sky above our heads that gives the clear indicator it’s daytime and signals our brain to keep us awake and active. All too often though, we are blocked off from the feeling of having a bright sky above us with a dark and un-inspiring indoor ceiling.
In this publification, you will see lighting products that turns the common workspace from a cave-like space into a more open and appealing environment to be in and work. We believe lighting and architecture should do more for humans that provide a place of cover, it should help humans feel alive and well.
Benefits of good office lighting:
• Provides greater visual comfort
• Improves productivity and increases feeling of wellbeing
• Aides in positive stimulation for staff
• Reduces sick leave
• Helps occupants keep in tune with their natural biological clock
• Assists occupants fall into a healthier sleep/wake cycle routine as melatonin is suppressed during the day more effectively.
• Helps suppress the onset of S.A.D (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
HUMAN CONNECTION TO LIGHT
Our species, predominantly being an outdoor based animal, have been on the planet for around 200,000 years, with our anatomies designed to walk, run, climb etc… Supporting the physical aspect of the human body is a complex biochemistry system that’s been tuned through evolution. Light plays a big role in the regulation of our natural biochemistry and physiology. humans have evolved on this planet over millions of years.
With all the scientific understanding we have today on how light effects our biochemistry and state, it is sad to think that many of us still to work in environments like this, which go against what our brains perceive as natural spaces.
Office lighting often solely focuses on the task lighting, but leaves consideration for human well-being out. Our mission is to bring to light how simple products and lighting techniques can change this for the good...
IMPROVING OFFICE LIGHTING
It’s sad to think many of us spend our working lives in offices like the illustration on the left shows. All too often the basic fit-out lighting implemented put’s us in a cave like an environment. This solution is only designed to light the task area leaving the ceiling and much of the vertical surfaces darker.
At one point in time was considered the ideal method of lighting due to low glare for old style VDU’s. But since then it’s recognised that many issues were caused including: excessive contrast leading to eye strain and visual discomfort, oppressive feeling with an increased level of anxiety and discomfort from an enclosed space, visual fatigue and drowsiness… these just being a few.
What we understand now more than ever is how our brains are hardwired to expect a bright sky or appearance of daylight penetration. Without it, you raise anxiety through the innate claustrophobic stresses all humans have when in enclosed spaces without natural daylight or view of clear opening to the outdoors.
A simple way to help alleviate the negative issues described so far and help create more stimulating spaces is to go away from the standard office fit-out choice of recessed fixtures and instead use uplighting. Here you can see how the introduction of lineare bi-directional suspended lights pick up the space.
An even simpler method could be to use dedicated free standing up-lights where the ceiling becomes a form of indirect light source. In the outdoor world, the sky is generally the brightest area of view and is where the majority of light comes from, using the simple method shown plays on this aspect of our nature and expectation.
What this also shows is that effective office lighting doesn’t need to be complicated at all, in fact, this very simple method creates a highly stimulating and airy space which leaves a clean ceiling.
Part of being in the right light at the right time is to do with colour appearance and spectrum of the light you're under in a particular time of day. To kickstart the day and enforce the entrainment of the mind that its day, it benefits people to be exposed to a white light with the right amount of blue content. In the evening, warmer colour appearance light with reduced blue content signals the brain its time prepare and phase in the wind-down process where biochemistry changes to allow for effective sleep and recovery.
Products like the TIPO on the left floor standing allow occupants to work under the right colour light at the right time through it's CCT control feature.
Humans are naturally an outdoor animal and therefore quite dependant on receiving natural light from the sun and sky, to feel awake and be at our best biologically and physiologically. However, we now spend more time working indoors than any time in our evolutionary past, thanks to the invention of the light bulb. More often than ever we spend much of our time in an office space that does little to keep us in harmony with the outdoors, effectively working in the cave.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Just by recognizing the key elements that connect us to the natural world can enable us to make better use of today's lighting technologies. For example, our brains are attuned to having a bright sky above our heads that gives the clear indicator it’s daytime and signals our brain to keep us awake and active. All too often though, we are blocked off from the feeling having a bright sky above us with a dark and un-inspiring indoor ceiling. Here you will see lighting proposals that turn the office from a cave-like space to a more open and appealing environment to be in and work. We believe lighting and architecture should do more for humans that provide a place of cover, it should help humans feel alive and well.
EXAMPLE UPLIGHTER
Presence & Daylight Detectors
Independent Uplight Element
Independent Downlighter Element with Low Glare Optics (<13 UGR)
Independent Dimming Control &
Colour Temperature Adjustability
LENO FLOOR STANDING:
