The Crucial Role of Lighting in Stimulating Workplaces

This raises a key question: what design considerations help create stimulating workplaces – and how can lighting play a central role?

Experts Matthew Thorpe, Architecture & Design Team Manager at Fagerhult, and Jean Hewitt, Accessibility and Inclusion Specialist at Buro Happold, share their insights.

From Functionality to Experience

Offices are often designed to meet basic functionality, such as providing sufficient lighting for reading, maintaining uniform brightness across the floor plate, and ensuring compliance with regulations. While practical, this can overlook the emotional and creative potential of a workspace. As Matthew explains:

“The best offices are always well considered. The lighting accentuates the finishes, enhances the architecture, and evokes a sense of ambience on entering. That’s when a workplace feels exciting.”

Lighting influences not only how a space looks, but also how it feels – whether cosy, energising, calm, or collaborative. When coordinated with architecture, interior design, and acoustics, lighting transforms the office from a space where employees feel obligated to be into a space they want to be.

Comfort and Inclusion

While lighting can stimulate creativity, it must also support comfort and wellbeing. Jean notes that people experience lighting differently depending on factors such as neurodiversity, age, or health conditions.

“Neurodiversity, age, and health conditions – such as autism, ADHD, or the menopause – can all create hypersensitivity to lighting,” she explains. “So, while we want workplaces that are engaging, it’s important to balance that with comfort. Stimulating doesn’t mean overwhelming.”

Her work with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) demonstrates how adjustability can make a workplace more inclusive. In their London office, clusters of four desks were fitted with shared overhead lights that could be adjusted for brightness and colour temperature. At the individual level, each person also had a desk lamp with the same controls, allowing them to fine-tune their own space.

“For some, it wasn’t the brightness but the whiteness of the light that was difficult. Having this two-layered control – both at the cluster and desk levels – was transformative. People even preferred coming into the office because the lighting was better than at home.”

Personal control and thoughtful design enable workplaces to cater to a wide range of needs, ensuring everyone feels empowered to thrive.

Lighting as a Design Catalyst

Lighting’s impact goes far beyond visual clarity. It shapes how people interact with space, how they feel during the day, and how they collaborate.

Matthew calls lighting a catalyst for atmosphere: “Natural light is the best – dynamic and changing throughout the day. If we can bring elements of that indoors, such as integrating Human Centric Lighting (HCL), offices feel more invigorating and natural.”

Jean adds: “We’ve seen brilliant people hindered by the wrong lighting. Adjustable, high-quality light not only supports focus and creativity, but it also ensures everyone can participate fully.”

Design Considerations for Stimulating Workplaces

There are many ways to approach lighting design to achieve the desired impact, these include:

• Layered lighting: Combining ambient, task, and accent lighting creates depth and variety. Matthew notes: “By layering light and giving people options, you make a workplace more visually interesting without major structural changes.”
• Zoning with light: Adjusting brightness and tone distinguishes areas for focus, collaboration, or relaxation.
• Human-centric lighting: Mirroring natural rhythms supports alertness and wellbeing.
• Personal control: Through smart systems, desk lamps, or dimmers, individuals can fine-tune lighting for comfort and satisfaction. Jean highlights: “The perception of what the ‘majority’ need is a myth. Many people benefit from adjusting their lighting. It’s not niche – most people appreciate it.”
• Integration with design: Lighting should complement architecture, finishes, and acoustics to create a coherent environment.

 

These strategies enhance stimulation while supporting inclusivity, offering tangible benefits for both employees and organisations.

The Workplace of Tomorrow

Looking ahead, flexibility will remain a key driver. Offices must adapt to changing demands, and hybrid working patterns. Adjustable, modular, and sustainable systems – such as Control Track Versa – will play a central role in this shift.

Matthew stresses the importance of sustainability and personal control: “We’re competing with home offices now, where people have control over their light and often sit near a window. Offices need to offer the same – if not better.”

Jean adds: “After the initial wow factor of a big office space, what really matters is whether people feel comfortable. Lighting that can be fine-tuned to personal needs helps people flourish.”

Lighting is Central to Stimulating Workplaces

When integrated thoughtfully, lighting shapes atmosphere, supports wellbeing, and enables creativity. It is both a design catalyst and an inclusion tool, helping organisations create offices that people want to visit.

As Matthew concludes: “Lighting isn’t just about enabling people to see – it’s about enabling them to thrive.”

With lighting at the heart of design, workplaces can move beyond functionality and become spaces that energise, connect, and inspire.