Both natural and artificial light are crucial elements in architecture and interior design. They can completely transform a space and make it more inviting. They can set the mood and add texture and depth.

Every architect and interior designer manipulates light differently. But each of them aims to turn any building or room into a functional space that exudes style. They seek to bring warmth and comfort to living or workspaces. And the essential part of achieving all this is allowing more natural light.

Daylighting in Architecture

Daylighting is the practice of bringing in more natural light through effective window orientation, skylights, and reflective surfaces that allow sunlight to provide the necessary lighting. Architects often use daylighting systems when looking to increase visual comfort and, at the same time, lower the levels of energy consumption.

When they want to create an alluring and warm space, they use as much natural light as possible. Because when there’s very little natural light, a room can feel very cold. Letting more sunshine in can also make a room or an entire building vitalizing, or even calming and intimate.

The way light is incorporated into a building essentially defines its character and the way people perceive it. How bright a space is, how the light is distributed in it, and what kind of shadows it forms all help define the character and the dimension of that space.

Creating the Illusion of Space

When there’s more natural light providing internal lighting, a space looks visually bigger. This isn’t a secret that only architects know, but a rather common practice among lots of people looking to make their living spaces appear more spacious.

It’s a practice used for centuries. Just imagine a room with a few regular-sized windows, and now imagine that same room with a floor-to-ceiling window wall. The latter adds significantly more depth because of all the light coming in and making the space seem a lot more expansive.

Enhancing Colors

Natural lighting also helps make a place more aesthetically pleasing by enhancing all the indoor colors. They look deeper, more natural, more intense. The color of every single surface shines brighter both in a literal and aesthetic sense when it is touched by natural light. It simply looks incredibly more pleasing.

Adding a Sense of Comfort and Style

Daylighting helps create spaces that are much more comfortable to spend time in. Again, where there isn’t much natural light in a room, it feels cold, uninviting, and cramped. What it also often leads to are headaches, depression, anxiety, and other health issues. After all, sunlight provides us with the necessary vitamin D.

Apart from adding a sense of comfort and improving both physical and mental health, natural lighting also adds a sense of grandeur. It creates a sense of style that will never go out of fashion.

Artificial Light in Interior Design

Lighting is usually not the first thing that pops to mind when designing an interior space. There are simply too many other elements to think about, such as combining various pieces of furniture to make them perfectly fit one or more décor styles.

However, lighting is one of the most important aspects of interior design that requires thorough planning. If incorporated the right way, artificial lighting can set the mood and create a compelling ambiance. It can take the aesthetic appeal to a whole new level and make any place look quite special and unique.

Adding various lighting fixtures in all the right spots helps perfectly combine style and functionality, transforming a room into a whole new world of possibilities.

Creating the Mood and Ambiance

Adding various lighting fixtures in a room can create an ideal mood set and add a sense of elegance. There are many ways to incorporate lighting in a room to create a wonderful interior design.

One of them is ambient lighting. It means adding wall sconces and lanterns that not only can additionally brighten a room but also produce a glowing ambient effect. What can enhance that effect, even more, are dimmer switches.

Other ways to implement lighting into a room is to incorporate task lighting, recessed lighting, and aesthetic lighting. When all of them work in perfect unison, they can make any space look and feel breathtaking. They can complement any décor and completely transform a room.

Highlighting Specific Elements

This has to do with yet another way to incorporate artificial lighting in an interior – accent lighting. It’s used to highlight any feature in a room that helps the interior reach its full potential.

Accent lighting can literally enhance and illuminate anything in a room. It can emphasize furniture, finishes, flooring, the bar top, a flower vase, an art piece, and pretty much anything else.

Whether you use table or corner lamps, wall sconces, hanging lamps with adjustable necks, or any other lighting fixture, you can make any specific element really pop.

Best Ways to Incorporate More Light into a Living or Work Area

Floor-to-ceiling windows are the best ways to allow more natural light into a room. But depending on the structure, these windows may not be an ideal solution sometimes. While they’re often great for workspaces, homeowners don’t always find them attractive for safety and privacy reasons. Fortunately, there are other excellent alternatives.

One great way to incorporate more natural light is to install clerestory windows. That way, an entire wall would have a row of windows that both bring enough light and let in the fresh air. They also solve privacy and safety problems.

Installing electric opening rooflights is another way to let more natural light in. These skylights can have built-in shades to manage the light and even be connected to solar panels for better energy efficiency.

Light shelves are also increasingly being used in architecture and interior design. They enable effective sunlight utilization that prevents harmful glare of direct sunlight, and they reduce direct heat accumulation.

Glass doors are yet another fantastic way to let more light into a work area or living space. Think see-through offices completely enclosed in glass, allowing as much natural light to pass through from the area around it. It’s often used in living areas too, for bathrooms, gyms, home offices, and more.

But what about windowless areas like hallways? Sun tunnels to the rescue! Also known as sun tubes, these lighting fixtures are absolutely perfect for areas where allowing natural light isn’t exactly possible. Through reflective tubes installed in the roof, they can lead sunlight straight into any dark room, just like skylights.

Lighting is an element that plays a huge part in both architecture and interior design. It’s not something that should be overlooked, as it can make any building or room look stylish, spacious, aesthetically pleasing, practical, and comfortable.

No matter the type of structure or the décor style, it can set the mood and ambiance, bring sophistication and style, add the necessary level of functionality, and create the illusion of space.