Luke Wallace is a Lighting Designer at LITEtask, in Leeds, UK. We met at planlicht in Vomp exchanging ideas for Human Centric Lighting and what it can and cannot do for us and our clients. LITEtask is a project driven company, formed by independent commercial Lighting Designers and Distributors and prides itself on long lasting and successfull partnerships with some of the leading manufacturers in the UK and Europe like planlicht.
Enter Luke.

In an age where we are constantly being told what is good for us and what isn’t, it’s difficult to believe that something so simple can actually be beneficial. But that is where we find ourselves with Human Centric Lighting (HumCL). When I found out about HumCL I was fascinated, the abilities of what just changing lighting could do was out of this world. Then the scepticism crept in, surely lighting can’t have that much of an effect on our bodies? So I tested it on myself, it does!
Sometimes I have bad days
I suffer from ADHD. Some days I have a bad days where everything is stressful, the whole day is just a continuous struggle. And some days I have good days where I remember lots of things. I can focus and I can really push myself. My girlfriend understands me and my needs. She knows when I’m having a bad day and just lets me get on with it. The simplest of tasks become huge and I can’t handle them. I read about HumCL and as a lighting designer having worked in the industry I was enthralled by the very idea. So I set of to read everything I could. I found some bogus claims of blue light fixing your stress and others where sufferers of ADHD can be cured using light.
Now I know that HumCL can’t do that. But what it can do and does do very well is alleviate a lot of stresses brought on by modern technology. For instance I didn’t realise that watching my laptop in bed on a night was so detrimental to my health and sleep pattern. My girlfriend and I had both complained of feeling more tired in the morning. We associated with stress at work. However after downloading the program f.lux and running it on a night on my Mac I noticed within a fortnight that I was getting better sleep and feeling better in the morning.
Why do we design a space depending upon its use and not take into account the person?
– Luke Wallace, Lighting Designer LITEtask, UK
This got me thinking. Why as lighting designers do we design a space depending upon the use of that space and not take into account the person that maybe doing that job? Possibly due to our lack of a crystal ball? Yes, maybe it is that. But what if we designed our lighting not to ‘the minimum requirements’ as we currently do? What if we designed based on a Human Centric basis?
An Office – a theoretical consideration
Let me propose a hypothetical; An office where people will be working on their computers and paperwork on their desks. The walls are white, as is the ceiling.
Now LG7 says we should light to a particular minimum (300lux). However, lets look at the users of that office and use two hypothetical people. We have a 22 year old female and 63 year old male.
After the age of 32 the eye lens deteriorates at around 1% per year, meaning the older man will need more light than the young woman. In that office (lit to 300) it’s an average but the young woman need around 200lux and the male 500 lux for the same job, now what if our lights were capable of doing 600lux but came on to a level set by the end user (within a X% margin of neighbouring lights)?
Suddenly we find ourselves with a room that is lit for the worker. And what if, while keeping that intensity, we could match the CCT to follow the natural daylight, helping our body maintain a healthy Circadian Rhythm? Suddenly we have a lit room that is working for the end user, not just the office. It looks more natural for the users, feels better for the users and ultimately can save absences due to sickness and stress. Productivity and overall morale increases leading to high retention rates, which means cheaper retraining costs for the management.
At night, light is like a slap in the face
On the other hand imagine you’re laid in bed and all the lights are off. and You’re tossing and turning, you can’t sleep. I know the first thing I do is head downstairs for some midnight snack or drink, that’ll help.
I try and go down the stairs without using light so I don’t ruin my night vision and wake myself up. After all that would be counter intuitive.
I get to the kitchen, reach for fridge and… Flash himself greets me with an almighty smack in the eyes, made up of stunning white LED light.
Now this colour temperature is beautiful for displaying my fresh fruit and veg. It even gives the slimline tonic water an attractive shimmer. But I know you’ll agree with me when I say it is not appreciated at 11:56pm when I’m trying to sneak a midnight snack to aid my search for sleep and melatonin.
What if our fridges were HumCL? They knew the time of day. They lit up accordingly, allowing us to manually override if needed but ultimately understanding what it was that we were doing?
Come to think of it, why don’t all out lights understand our needs?
Why do not all our lights understand our needs?
Is this not the way lighting should be? I know it’s now how I think about lighting when I design. Not what is that space being used for, but who is using the space? Is it beneficial for them and how can I develop it to be more beneficial? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves as lighting designer and not where is the money saving. The biggest cost to any business is the staff, so spend a little on them and you’ll get a return. It’s just logical, isn’t it?!