How to Light an Open Plan Office

Open plan offices are a popular layout for workplaces because they improve communication between staff. The lighting needs to reflect this need and create a welcoming environment that aids both concentration and informal meetings.

Lighting will affect the mood and productivity of employees, so how do you get it right?

Good Lighting Design

Good design combines ambient lighting for general illumination, accent lighting to add depth and highlight areas in a space, and task lighting to aid specific tasks.

Use Natural Light

Nothing is better in creating a good atmosphere than natural light and it’s free. To maximise this, consider using daylight linking sensors for the luminaires nearest the windows. These will dim up and down in response to natural light levels.

Luminaire selection

Alongside natural light, most of your ambient lighting will come from overhead ceiling lights. Exactly which fittings you choose may depend on the ceiling structure.

You should supplement this lighting with wall lights to add interest and spotlights to highlight focal points such as artwork, signage or points of architectural interest. These may also help task lighting although this will often come from portable lamps – so make sure there are enough sockets for people to plug these in by their workplaces.

Getting into the specifics of selecting the right fittings you need to consider:

  • Lumens per Watt – higher figures are more energy efficient
  • Correlated colour temperature (CCT) of 4000k aids concentration.
  • Unified glare rating of 19 because most people will work at screens.
  • Colour rendition (Ra) of at least 80, or 90 where CRI is vital such as for graphic design.

Light Levels

According to CIBSE guidelines, the recommended illuminance level for general office tasks is between 300 and 500 lux. For screen-based work we would recommend 300 lux, but for mainly paper based work 500 lux is better.

But you need to do more than focus on the working surface. One of the key reasons why open plan offices are so popular is that it aids collaboration. This means that you need to light someone’s face for both business and social interactions.

BS EN 12464-1:2021 states that you must consider the vertical element of lighting particularly at face height, which is 1.2 metres for sitting and 1.6 metres for standing.

Lighting control

We have already talked about daylight linking to use whatever natural light is available, but you may also want to consider presence detection sensors for each work area to save energy when people are absent and don’t need lighting.

Think about different zones

While workstations need a certain amount of light, you may find that the customer wants to create different areas in a space. They may need to include a reception area or provide a breakout area for informal meetings or a chat.

Different lighting can create a sense of balance across these zones. For more on how to light reception areas, meeting spaces or breakout areas download our Better Lighting for Offices Specification Guide. This will cover all the needs you are likely to find in an office block.

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