Office Lighting Design: How Light Transforms a Room
Alessandro Nicotra
Light
In short
— Light on the walls makes rooms feel more spacious and clearer, while light solely from above onto the table makes them feel more focused and narrower.
— Good lighting works in layers: ambient light, accent light, and atmosphere.
— Standard EN 12464-1 specifies 500 lux for office workstations, limits glare, and, since 2021, also requires light on walls and ceilings.
The same room can feel spacious or cramped, functional or warm, restless or focused. What matters is not how bright it is, but where the light falls. Good lighting design therefore begins with the question of what impression a space should make, and only then with luminaires and lux.
The standard describes a minimum baseline, not a design.
How does light change the perception of a room?
Light determines which surfaces we see, and thus how large, open, or familiar a room appears. Lighting researcher John Flynn investigated this in the 1970s in an office space with six lighting schemes. The impressions depended primarily on whether the light came from above or from the perimeters, was uniform or non-uniform, bright or dim (NIST).
Later studies confirm this: wall washing makes a room appear clear and orderly, while indirect light makes it feel more spacious (Manav and Yener, 1999).
What are the three layers of lighting design?
Ambient luminescence, focal glow, and play of brilliants (light to see, light to look at, and light to look upon). The concept goes back to lighting designer Richard Kelly. A calm base brightness provides orientation, accents direct the eye, and light that has an effect in itself gives the place its character.
Kanadevia Inova, Zurich
How much light does an office workspace need?
The EN 12464-1 standard requires 500 lux on the work surface for office work. In addition, there are limits for glare and color rendering, and since 2021 also values for walls, ceiling, and faces (Trilux; licht.de). In Switzerland, the SECO guidelines refer to the same values.
A room can meet all the values and still appear flat. That's why we plan the effect first and then check the numbers.
What does a lighting calculation show?
It shows how much light arrives where, before a luminaire is installed. This makes it clear where workstations receive too little light, where paths are unnecessarily bright, and whether the walls receive enough light. We recalculate every lighting design in Relux until the effect and values match.
Why does lighting design start with daylight?
Because the sun already does most of the work during the day, and because daylight is good for you. A pilot study found that office workers with windows slept about 46 minutes longer on workdays. Workstations are moved to where daylight provides the most benefit, and sun protection remains adjustable so the view outside stays open.
One room, two faces
During the day, clear task lighting is needed. In the evening, when guests arrive or the team sits together, the room changes its mood with a lighting scene: task white turns into a warm tone, and from the street, you see life instead of lights.
Five questions before lighting design
1 · How should the space feel?
2 · Where does the daylight fall?
3 · Have the walls been factored in?
4 · Which scenes does the day require?
5 · Has the design been recalculated?
pom+ Industriehof, Zurich, in the evening
Frequently Asked Questions
Warm white or neutral white in the office?
Both have their place. Neutral white light around 4000 Kelvin feels clear and objective and is ideal for focused work. Warm white light around 3000 Kelvin feels cosier and suits meeting zones, reception areas, and evening moods.
What does the UGR value mean?
The UGR value describes how much a lighting system produces glare. The lower the value, the more pleasant the light. A threshold of 19 applies to office workstations.
What is cylindrical illuminance?
It describes how much light falls on vertical surfaces from all directions, such as on faces. It determines whether people can see each other well in conversations and video calls.
Are downlights enough for good office lighting?
Rarely on their own. Downlights illuminate desks and floors, but often leave walls and ceilings dark. Only with light on the boundaries of the room does an office feel open and bright.
Is lighting control with sensors worth it?
In most offices, yes. According to EnergieSchweiz, only around one in ten indoor lights in Switzerland is sensor-controlled, even though consistent control can reduce consumption by more than 80 percent compared to older systems.
Sources
NIST IR 5119: Literature review on light and spatial perception, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Effects of different lighting arrangements on space perception, Manav and Yener, 1999
Planner Update 2021 on EN 12464-1, Trilux, 2021
licht.forum 60: Guide to DIN EN 12464-1, licht.de
Guidelines to EmpO 3, Art. 15 Lighting, SECO, 2018
Impact of windows and daylight exposure on health and sleep quality of office workers, Boubekri et al., 2014
Electricity consumption for lighting in Switzerland, EnergieSchweiz / SFOE, 2023
Good lighting doesn't call attention to itself. You simply feel it: in your morning focus, in evening conversations, and in the feeling of being in a space that truly suits you.
Contact
Listening is our first draft.
Every project begins with a conversation. Tell us what you have in mind: a new working environment, a restaurant, a space for the future. We bring an open mind, curiosity, and experience in strategy, interior design, and lighting. We'd love to meet at our studio on Gutstrasse in Zurich. Or wherever your project is coming to life.