Say what you want about lighting being a mature industry, but compared to our friends in the HVAC sector, we just might be the model of innovation.
A story recently posted on CNN.com described the heavy-handed approach to air-conditioning as being stuck in the 1950s. Although “the heat outside is setting records,” the article noted, “the summer cold front in the office is not a new phenomenon. When air-conditioning became standard in buildings in the 1950s, offices started overcooling. Building owners wanted to show they offered the comfort of air-conditioning, but sometimes they offered too much of it.”
The article went on to explain why the office is still so cold today. “Experts have various answers: different bodies, and sometimes, genders, react to temperatures differently; the temperature model used is decades old; and office air-conditioning is designed for a more formal dress code.” Other reasons include the fact that air flow in buildings is designed for full occupancy—few offices are currently reaching those levels as many employees work from home at least part of the workweek—and the fact that buildings are already designed to withstand the hottest day and don’t necessarily scale back for an average summer one.” The end result—people
using space heaters and wearing sweaters on 95-deg days. How primitive.
Contrast this chilly reception with current practice in our industry, where design strategies for light and health are deployed with a gentle touch. Indeed, there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for office staff, factory workers or students as our feature “Message: We Care” (p. 24) demonstrates. In this article—and the others in our theme issue on light and health—everything from a worker’s interaction with their computer screen to light sensitivity in classrooms is accommodated by design.
Pretty cool, right?