There is an evident correlation between light intensity and human behavior. Light intensity has the capability of influencing human moods and feelings. Light dictates the senses of touch, visualization, and interpretation of shapes to sound and smell. Organizations can take advantage of the impact of light to influence the workload completion and productivity levels of the workforce. Architecture design can calm or spark excitement among individuals. Emotions socially interconnect and later impact the personality of the people.
It is worth noting that the psychological effects of light depend on the human’s perceptions, so it is important to consider how people perceive certain types of light while developing the architecture. We are planning to design a culture center for people to learn about what's happening inside UN, what kinds of issue the UN is dealing with in New York, so that people could express their opinions and be part of UN decisions and a place for people to protest. The way people see distinct traits of any spatial envelope determines people’s movement pattern. People generally move towards light and further away from darkness. As such, the contrast ratio between the two spaces determines the level of attention needed in that place. If the ratio is high, then the movement towards that space will be as high, seeing that people are likely to move towards brighter objects.
Schielke states that Louis Khan using the light as a source often hidden behind louvers or secondary walls, thus concentrating attention on the effect of the light and not on its origin. That’s what we are trying to figure out, how to use light to draw people’s attention and motivate them move to the next space.
A good building design takes into consideration light factors. Architecture psychology is mostly led by how the building looks in terms of brightness and colors, considering that it is crucial to understand how light in architecture influences people′s emotions. Light impacts people’s experiences. In retail stores light is used to attract buyers in the store and once in the store, buyers are attracted to the items located where the most lighting is. The lighting design within a building should provide enough illumination by distributing light all over. The distribution of light should be as uniform as possible to avoid glaring and shadowing effect. Illumination levels are important because it assists people to see the surrounding for themselves.
We learn to manipulate interior lighting to observe individuals' emotions and responses due to change in architecture. During the designing phase of a building, lighting needs to be factored into the space. Lighting within a certain space should encourage attentiveness and increased productivity. Additionally, the design to integrate changes in lighting that occurs throughout the day have to be done in a way that controls the light intensity of the entire room. Each room should have enough light to cater to its main function. We want to learn how to determine the extent to which different light colors in buildings can invoke individual emotions. Maybe we could create a feeling of reverence when people see what the UN has done in New York. Natural illumination influences feelings of comfort and pleasure, but these feelings are given more weight in private spaces such as residences than in public areas such as cities. People would choose illumination that is more realistic and calming as a group, so natural light is preferred to artificial light (Heydarian et al., 2016).
