Workplace design is undergoing a radical change with organisations creating agile and smarter spaces to enhance employee wellbeing, by achieving personalised level of control, implementing actionable insights for space optimisation, hot desking, meeting room bookings, etc. In addition to this, modulation of the colour of light, impacting circadian rhythm and achieving wellness of the employees is gaining popularity.
The WELL Building Standard provides guidelines that minimise disruption to the body’s circadian system, enhance productivity, support good sleep quality and provide appropriate visual acuity — all of which are outcomes of human centric lighting solutions. With this in mind, Wipro Lighting unveiled its trademarked Internet of Lighting (IoL) solutions for smart and connected indoor and outdoor lighting. The company has developed its own range of human centric lighting solutions under the brand inSync, as a part of its Internet of Lighting offerings.
To keep up with the latest trends in lighting design and technology, Wipro Lighting rolled out Masterclass, an educative series and a knowledge-sharing platform across three cities — Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.
The first edition covered concepts on bio-dynamic lighting, employee wellness, cognitive performance and alertness, explained by renowned researcher Dr Octavio L Perez from Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, USA.
Dr Perez is a PhD in multidisciplinary sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York. His field of interest ranges HCL (human centric lighting) and its application in the healthcare environment. He is affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital, and is developing HCL business intelligence and strategy for one of Europe’s leading lighting manufacturers. Dr Perez also serves in several international technical committees and is a WELL Building Standard accredited professional.
During the Masterclass, he kickstarted his address by sharing insight about the research being carried out at the hospital with respect to Healthcare Affective Lighting (HAL). “At Mount Sinai, we compose light in a space similar to how musical notes are composed in a song. With the help of software and control, we are able to deliver different quality of lights for occupants. We study different clinical procedures under different lighting environments/conditions and measure errors to improve performance of clinicians at large,” said Dr Perez.
Speaking about the correlation of buildings/architectural spaces and lighting, he said, “Lighting can be used to eliminate the use of sleeping pills to sleep and coffee to stay awake. Special lighting, light showers, capsules, etc, can be installed in buildings to boost performance by controlling the psychophysiology without any side effects.” He spoke about the differentiation between indoor daylight and outdoor daylight and showcased studies where wavelengths of blue-pumped LEDs and full-spectrum LEDs are compared with the wavelengths of indoor daylight and how each of them affect visual function and impact the human body.
“We need to consider the term ‘exposome’, which is the measure of all the exposures of an individual in a lifetime and how those exposures relate to health. It is discovered that 90% of the body’s illnesses come from the environment. Since we spend a large portion of our day indoors, it is crucial to maintain indoor conditions and lighting is an important factor,” Dr Perez added.
WELL is the only standard that is focused into human health and wellbeing, he claimed. “WELL considers air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind as the seven factors that affect human health in buildings, with light weighing 11%.” He also touched upon the basics of circadian lighting design, first introduced by WELL. Light is one of the main drivers of the circadian system of our body, which starts in the brain and regulates physiological rhythms throughout the body’s tissues and organs, affecting hormone levels and the sleep-wake cycle.
Dr Perez pointed that circadian light design helps maintain visual, biological and emotional conditions of humans: “Circadian rhythms are kept in sync by various cues, including light which the body responds to in a way facilitated by intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs): the eyes’ non-image-forming photoreceptors. Through ipRGCs, lights of high frequency and intensity promote alertness, while the lack of this stimulus signals the body to reduce energy expenditure and prepare for rest. The biological effects of light on humans can be measured in Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML), a proposed alternate metric that is weighted to the ipRGCs instead of to the cones, which is the case with traditional lux.”
Summing up the benefits of HCL design, Dr Perez said, “Improving wellbeing of humans improves valuation of building developers’ assets and portfolio in the stock market; properties become prime and easier to rent; the mortgage percentage rises on lower down payment and low interest; talent retention strengthens; and insurance rates for company and workers lowers. Additionally, lighting is not just about the fixtures, rather IT, network, software and enablers too. The design, spatial arrangement and material specifications are taken into consideration as well.”
Dr Perez said personalised lighting, which can be achieved by carefully strategising directionality of light with respect to ipRGCs and age, will gain prominence in the near future. Since HCL can be used in offices, industries, schools, healthcare buildings, retail spaces, hospitality buildings and residential structures, he showcased multiple examples of HCL bringing about a positive change in the indoor environment, thereby improving performance and scores. This highlighted not just the need for good lighting indoors but also the need to keep the HCL segment to create ideal products for current and future needs.