Shalini Singhal on how the right lighting can create a conducive work environment.
Most of us work in steel, glass and concrete boxes, often unaware of time and climate. Lighting in corporate offices plays a pivotal role in creating a work environment conducive to enhanced employee performance and productivity. Office lighting is dependent on whether it is open plan or a closed room and then again, the function of its spaces.
1) First impressions are last impressions, and so receptions and lobbies are lit to convey image — from subdued and serious to funky and charged. Light the ceilings and floors here and use subtle edge lighting to lead people into corridors or through the main circulation areas.
2) Conference and meeting rooms are for visitors, clients and intra office meets; lighting here will be required to help in audiovisual presentations and reading, writing and viewing while discussions are on and for groups of various sizes. Remote lighting control systems allow for greater flexibility.
3) Executive cabins need to convey power and success. Here besides coves one may use focus lights for paintings and task lighting for the desk. Indirect lighting must eliminate glare to computer screens and sensors here work as power saving devices.
4) Open plan offices need to be lit to boost worker morale and build teamwork in what is the ‘lung’ of the office. This is easily done by using high efficiency luminaires in-built into the false ceiling modules designed to reduce energy load by day-light harvesting.
5) Cafes and ‘break out’ spaces may be lit with coloured LEDs and pendant lights to establish a sense of informal ease.
6) Thus as Edison’s incandescent gives way to CFLs and LEDs, metal halides and fluorescents, energy efficient and green lighting concepts are the future mantras for the lighting industry.
[The writer is a Delhi-based interior designer]
