We all know that a room with a window is better than one without, but do you know how adding an additional direction of the light in a room can improve it? In today’s Inspiration Corner article, we lift the lid on directional light in interior design and architectural lighting.
When considering their home, people often place a lot of focus on facade lighting coming in horizontally through the windows. And this is definitely important to how a room looks and feels. But did you know that vertical light through a roof light or skylight can have an equally if not greater transformational effect? Here’s how experts use architectural lighting techniques:
1. Vertical light makes rooms seem bigger: When you flood a space with vertical light as opposed to just facade lighting, you make it look larger than it actually is. This effect is achieved through two factors, the first being that vertical light brings light down across the whole room, not just one side like a window. This allows the room’s full proportions to be appreciated (no dark, poky corners at the back of the room!). Secondly, it allows for light to penetrate the room in different dimensions, which has an optical effect of making the room look larger.
2. Vertical light makes rooms seem brighter: Facade lighting is great at throwing light into the side of the room they are on, and mainly when the sun is closest to that side. Adding vertical light through a rooflight allows for you to capitalize on the sun’s most dominant hours in the middle of the day and this smart architectural lighting technique expands the area of the room where natural light can be found.
3. Vertical light can improve the value of your property: By virtue of the fact that vertical light makes rooms look bigger, brighter and more airy, they can actually increase the value of the property when it comes to time to sell it.
4. Vertical light can make you happier and healthier: Increasing our exposure to natural light has been proven to have a positive effect on our mental and physical wellbeing in numerous scientific studies. Vertical light sources allow for more daylight availability in a room and over a longer period of time.
Now you know what vertical light can do for your home, why not let your inner designer out and try creating your ultimate daylight experience?
