LC Blog
Lighting and wayfinding
August 25, 2011 at 4:20 PM by Dr. Robert Davis
Lighting considerations today are often reduced to figuring out the bare minimum horizontal footcandles that we can get away with while living within stringent watts per square foot code requirements. Unfortunately, this too easily causes us to lose sight of the tremendous potential of lighting to impact human comfort and behavior. For human interactions with architecture, we find that the lighting of vertical architectural surfaces is much more important than the lighting of horizontal surfaces. One example of this is the impact of lighting on wayfinding within architectural spaces.
With wayfinding, we are trying to use lighting to help people navigate through spaces. A classic study done in the 1970s by Taylor and Sucov demonstrated the power of lighting as a wayfinding aid. This study showed that the percentage of people who chose to go to the right or to the left in order to navigate around a barrier was strongly affected by the brightness ratio on the primary vertical surfaces. With no specific emphasis, most people chose to go to the right, but a majority of people chose instead to go to the left when the lighting emphasis was placed on the left. So when you are designing a public space such as a lobby or gallery and want to help people navigate through it, think about the vertical surfaces that will be in their field of view and be sure to get a good lighting emphasis on those surfaces. Our Wall/Slot and Mod Wall
To view a video clip that summarizes the Taylor-Sucov study, go to our Video Library. A complete "Lighting the Spatial Envelope" course is availble at The Continuing Architect.
For further study you can read: "Cognitive & Emotional Responses to Lighting: This is Your Brain on Lighting" - A summary of other psychological impacts of lighting.
Also available is Light the Walls - A discussion of reasons and techniques for wall lighting.
