Summary
This review examines how architectural features—particularly lighting, window presence, and spatial design—influence occupant health, mood, and productivity, with effects ranging from indirect (stress from crowded spaces) to direct (eye strain from poor lighting). For lighting designers and architects, the paper underscores that illumination choices are not merely aesthetic but have measurable consequences for occupant wellbeing and performance.
Key Findings
- Presence or absence of windows and quality of illumination are identified as architectural features associated with mood and health outcomes.
- Poor lighting is cited as a direct cause of eye strain, while inadequate spatial design creates indirect health effects via stress pathways.
- No specific quantitative effect sizes or p-values are reported; findings are descriptive and review-based.
Categories
Mood & Mental Wellness: Reviews how architectural features including lighting affect mood, social behavior, and productivity.
Eye Health & Vision: Discusses direct health impacts of lighting including eye strain from poor illumination.
Workplace Performance: Addresses how design characteristics and illumination affect user productivity and satisfaction.
Author(s)
EV ELLIS, DL MCEACHRON
Related Publications
Mood & Mental Wellness
- The two‐process model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal
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- Effects of artificial dawn and morning blue light on daytime cognitive performance, well-being, cortisol and melatonin levels
- Light therapy and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia: past, present, and future
- The role of daylight for humans: gaps in current knowledge
Eye Health & Vision
- Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice
- Genetic reactivation of cone photoreceptors restores visual responses in retinitis pigmentosa
- Melanopsin and rod–cone photoreceptors play different roles in mediating pupillary light responses during exposure to continuous light in humans
- Characteristic patterns of dendritic remodeling in early-stage glaucoma: evidence from genetically identified retinal ganglion cell types
- Intrinsically photosensitive melanopsin retinal ganglion cell contributions to the pupillary light reflex and circadian rhythm
Workplace Performance
- Acute alerting effects of light: A systematic literature review
- Effects of artificial dawn and morning blue light on daytime cognitive performance, well-being, cortisol and melatonin levels
- Can light make us bright? Effects of light on cognition and sleep
- Kruithof's rule revisited using LED illumination
- Shining light on memory: Effects of bright light on working memory performance