Lighting Design and New Lighting Technologies for Enhanced Learning Environments

Lighting is one of the central parameters along with other environmental features such as colour, temperature, noise, materials of volumes and furniture that improve the learning environment and the performances of students. Well-being and the ability to cognitively perform in educational premises are research issues of increasing importance in the lighting design sector. This research topic ranges through a variety of educational establishments, from early childhood nurseries to universities classrooms. Since the early 70s, several studies have dealt with the influence of specific features of natural and artificial lighting on pupils’ well-being and their cognitive performances. In particular, investigations focus on mood, mental performance, activity, alertness, and cognitive functions along with stimulation of behaviours, interactions and learning performances. Beyond the vision, the lighting conditions occurring in a learning environment are influential parameters in affecting also the psychophysiological and cognitive performances. New lighting technologies, nowadays, can improve this relationship. In the last decade, the recent significant transformation in the lighting industry has been driven by the massive introduction of solid-state lighting (SSL) systems for general lighting. In addition to this, the overall lighting system performances has been further improved due to the use of digital lighting networking and sensor controls to connect, manage and monitor the lighting performance according to users’ needs. The purpose of the study is to review the existing literature on the relationship between lighting design influencing vision, well-being, satisfaction with the luminous environment along with the enhancement of cognitive and sensorial functions. The overall research questions are: How does light support and enhance wellbeing and learning capabilities in educational buildings? How designers can implement lighting conditions to determine social, psychological, aesthetic and functional features in the context of application of educational premises? The methodology focus on a review of existing literature about the visual, physiological, psychological influence of lighting. This theoretical part states that the quality of light can influence the cognitive skills and the academic performance of students (e.g. attention, concentration, cognitive reasoning and fluency of reading). Specific lighting scenarios which can be dynamically changed, can support the rhythm of school class activities and enhance the sensory stimulation of students in their formative years (from pre-scholar to adolescent learners) to enhance learning, creativity, attention. From this evidence-based knowledge, the researcher proposes suggestions to how the lighting design may provide the most supportive environmental learning conditions for the future design of education environments: traditional classrooms, rooms for study and breakout areas. The paper develops design scenarios through the use of moodboard and design visualization to describe the features of environments that could improve the learning abilities of infants, toddlers and academic students. Since that all the operators of learning and teaching environments spend most of the daylight hours indoors in classrooms, it seems essential to consider the opportunities given by the new lighting technologies to design enhanced luminous learning environments.