Empathic Lighting Design for Healthcare Environments

Abstract

Light has the powerful capacity to generate a certain quality and atmosphere within a room. However, lighting design specification is often only characterized via quantitative metrics. In healthcare institutions, such as care homes, hospitals and rehabilitation centres, the use of lighting design may support a positive atmosphere, and potentially also support the health and wellbeing of patients. When people are hospitalised, they are in a difficult and often stressful situation, in which they meet nurses, physicians and relatives within new, unfamiliar surroundings. These situations call for supportive architectural spaces with atmospheres that help people relax and feel safe. Nevertheless, these spaces often lack a lighting design that supports this intent. The objective of this study is to implement two different lighting scenarios and investigate how they affect patients in a psychiatric affective healthcare unit at Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre. Two different lighting scenarios were implemented and tested in a SW-facing group therapy room, during one winter period (November 2022–March 2023). In all, the study included 12 patients. Through questionnaires, the patients were asked how they perceived the luminous environments of two lighting scenarios, one in the existing healthcare lighting vs. a new lighting setup. The patients indicated their preferences and how the lighting design affected and supported heir therapeutic session. The two lighting scenarios are: a) Four high-positioned LED-luminaires (H=2,65 m) in the ceiling; and b) Two low-positioned LED-luminaires suspended above the meeting table (H=1,50 m). The results of the survey showed that patients overall preferred the low-positioned, non-uniform lighting, which scored a total of 60 points in the semantic analysis, compared to 35 points for the high-positioned, uniform lighting. In addition, from a sustainability viewpoint, energy consumption for the low-positioned lighting scenario was only 21 W, compared to 140 W for the high-positioned lighting scenario, providing an 85% reduction in total energy consumption.