Just as sunlight is essential to our survival on the planet, man-made light is vital to our ability to function in the workplace. And in a world with an interconnected global workforce that operates 'round the clock, this fact hits home now more than ever. Yet the role light plays in office spaces is constantly getting tweaked as our awareness of its impact on the environment—and on our well-being—becomes more sophisticated. As a result, creating perfect lighting conditions in work settings has gotten increasingly complex.

In their quest to create an ideal balance of light in office environments, lighting designers face a unique set of challenges. Not only do office cultures and tasks vary from business to business, but also the buildings in which these businesses operate range from adapted manufacturing facilities to retrofitted high-rises to newly constructed suburban office parks. The workers themselves vary, too, from bright-eyed recent college grads to those who have graduated to reading glasses. And we all seek lighting conditions that are just right for our individual tastes and needs.

Possibilities vs. Limitations

While advances in lighting technology continue to enhance the possibilities for developing high-quality customized lighting solutions, changes in energy codes have placed greater restrictions on how lighting designers can deploy the tools at their disposal. Codes vary from state to state and even on the local level within a state. Therefore, lighting designers must consistently adapt to meet these codes—as well as the evolving standards established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the recommended practice guidelines of Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA)—to reduce energy consumption through the use of efficient lighting fixtures, sources, and system controls.

As the codes and requirements get more stringent, the lighting design process has become more challenging, according to lighting designer Stephen Bernstein, principal of New York-based Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design. “When you need to compare the number of watts you’re allowed to use versus the number of actual watts in the design, it becomes an accounting issue that has to be computed,” Bernstein explains. “It’s changed the nature of how we work, and it takes longer to do, which is reflected in the fees architects, lighting designers, and engineers have to charge.”

Complicating matters further, lighting technology, codes, and energy initiatives are sometimes out of synch. “Typically a dimming ballast will consume more watts than a standard on/off ballast,” says Bernstein. “So if you compare an on/off system versus a system that dims, the dimming system will consume more watts and might put you over the limit, even though it will save watts over time. But energy initiatives encourage and reward dimming, control, and daylight harvesting with additional points.”

Since the amount of energy consumption the newest codes allow is about as low as it can get with current technology, the light sources that can produce the recommended levels of about 30 to 35 footcandles of light for an open office space at the required wattage are limited mostly to fluorescents. Thankfully, advances in fluorescent technology have resulted in smaller, more efficient T-5 and T-8 lamps that also reduce the flicker associated with older, larger T-12 fluorescents. The new lamps also provide better color rendering capability and more appealing color temperatures that more closely resemble the warmer light of incandescent sources or even daylight. And according to Patrick Gryzbek, an architect with Chicago-based Perkins+Will | Eva Maddox Branded Environments, who is NQPLC lighting certified and has taught lighting design for 20 years, these smaller, more efficient lamps have generated an increase in fixture possibilities, too, which permit these sources to be used more creatively and effectively. “The change in the energy codes has revolutionized lighting design in office spaces in recent history and has forced not only designers but equipment manufacturers to become more inventive,” he says.

Another revolutionary event, says Gryzbek, was the advent of the flat-screen computer, which helps mitigate glare concerns. Just about a decade ago, for example, much attention was given to veiling reflections on curved glass CRT screens and indirect or parabolic louvered fixtures were commonly used to avoid glare. Yet both types of light have plusses and minuses. “Indirect light is pleasant,” says lighting designer Bill Schwinghammer, principal of New York-based William Schwinghammer Lighting Design, “but at times it gets sleepy because of lack of visual interest.” Gryzbek refers to this phenomenon as a “gray sky” effect. “Indirect fixtures offer the advantage of bright, uniformly lit spaces, but the disadvantage is that the environment feels flat,” says the architect. “Parabolic direct fixtures, on the other hand, produce a ‘cave effect’ due to the cut-off angles of the fixtures, which make it difficult to get light on vertical surfaces,” he says. “Now combination indirect/direct fixtures allow for a wide variety of variable optics to control uplighting and downlighting, and they can be mounted closer to the ceilings, which allows for greater flexibility in their positioning.” Indirect/direct fixtures also increase the direct contribution of light, allowing higher footcandle levels while still meeting current energy codes.

Introducing Natural Light

The surging emphasis on energy efficiency and sustainable design has also drawn attention to the use of natural light in office environments. According to Wilson Dau, principal of Dau Design and Consulting based in Calgary, Alberta, and chairman of the IESNA's office lighting committee, the energy savings resulting from conscientious daylight harvesting can be substantial. "We generally say that commercial office buildings use about 48 percent of the energy consumed in the United States, and 22 percent of that electricity used is for lighting," he says, adding that commercial and industrial buildings are responsible for about 51 percent of that consumption. While there are many different claims about the benefits of daylighting, says Dau, "it's a safe bet that an approach that combines daylighting techniques with an integrated management system can result in long-term savings of about 25 percent on energy costs over a standard system between 10 and 20 years old."

Aside from its positive environmental and economic benefits, daylight in the workplace is also sought to improve workers' morale and their ability to function. While the real impact of daylight on a person's well-being remains somewhat elusive (the role of light on issues such as absenteeism or headaches has yet to be fully analyzed, for example), our intuitive attraction to daylight is undeniable.

Access to daylight is also part of the mix of points that can earn a space LEED certification, which includes a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. "Everybody wants access to natural light," says interior designer Nestor Santa Cruz, design director for Gensler in Washington D.C. "But depending on the shape and size floor plate of the building, that access will vary," he says. "An existing building in an urban environment, for example, will have a very different set of conditions than a new stand-alone building, where you have the opportunity to shape the floor plate and fuse the lighting design with the architecture to put as many people as possible in contact with the edge of the building from day one."

Still, even in existing office buildings, a trend in space planning has emerged over the past decade or so to provide more democratic access to sunlight. Circulation zones or workstation areas are now commonly situated around building perimeters or perimeter offices are enclosed with glass panels that let light flow into the deeper recesses of a space. New developments in building design, including longer, narrower structures or buildings that revolve around a central atrium, also afford greater access to light for all occupants. Yet, an unbridled flow of natural light doesn't necessarily guarantee a more contented or productive employee. In fact, too much natural light can actually hinder productivity. So integrating the means to control sunlight can be as important as introducing the light itself. Light control devices—from baffles, overhangs, and proper siting to window blinds, windows with coatings that limit light transmission, and automatic occupancy sensors or integrated or even individual switching and dimming systems—can help to create a comfortably illuminated working environment.

Creating An Artful Composition

Whether an office is illuminated with daylight or electric lights or both, the manner in which this light is composed will affect how well it serves its intended purpose. "Just as background music—whether it's Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald or Alicia Keys, can influence our mood, light with its patterns of brightness can influence our perception of a space," says New York-based lighting designer Gary Gordon, who is also the author of Interior Lighting (John Wiley, 2003). "For areas where sustained concentration is required, lighting schemes with low levels of contrast are suitable, while dining areas, employee lounges, and corridors can benefit greatly from high-contrast lighting."

Gordon believes that the best illumination strategies include a mix of natural and artificial light and combine what the late lighting designer Richard Kelly eloquently defined as ambient light, focal glow, and sparkle. Indirect sources, whether suspended from the ceiling or positioned atop cabinets produce a pleasing diffuse ambient light, while desk lamps, integrated under cabinet fixtures create focal glow, and decorative fixtures like chandeliers and sconces, or reflective surfaces, such as hardware or reveals, can provide the sparkle that delights eye and adds interest.

To create interesting and stimulating work environments, Schwinghammer shakes up the status quo by altering the standard positioning of ceiling fixtures to create interesting patterns or pockets of light. "Some spaces, especially large open work areas are too brutal in their relentless consistency," he says. "You need to do something to make the spaces more human, more residential, less machined, and more organic. Some of the newer office spaces are more free-form to accommodate different ways of working, and I like to stagger or scatter the positions of the fixtures in pods or groups of three to reflect the furniture layout." Lighting can also be employed to bring a sense of artfulness to an office space or make a branding statement. A Washington, D.C., law office designed by Santa Cruz, for example, sought to link its workspace to the broader environs, so the designer introduced a decorative chandelier fixture resembling a blossoming cherry branch to its reception area.

In a world in which the workforce is becoming increasingly mobile, the corporate office environment now competes with other places to work. To remain relevant, offices need to be designed as places where people want to be. And good lighting can be as attractive and uplifting to people in built work environments as the sun is in the natural world.