Nature sets the standard
If you feel comfortable in your work environment, then you’ll be more creative and more productive – it’s not for nothing that the “cubicles” in the big offices of yesteryear have largely given way to open-plan, flexible workspaces. But it’s not only the appropriate and ergonomic furnishing of the space that influences productivity among employees; the lighting concept in the enclosed spaces also makes a considerable contribution to performance.
In order to highlight the need for people to feel comfortable in the workplace and to be able to offer corresponding technical solutions in product development, at regular intervals Zumtobel carries out studies with academic partners such as the Nymphenburg Group or the Fraunhofer Institute. One finding this collaboration came up with is that properties such as the brightness and the temperature of the natural light play a role in the regulation of people’s sleep-wake cycles. In the industrialized nations, people spend up to 80 percent of the day indoors – so if the course of the natural daylight is imitated by the artificial lighting, this has a positive effect on our bio-rhythm and thus on our health. In addition, people are better able to concentrate and to reduce stress. Following on from these findings, Zumtobel has developed the LED light family with tunableWhite technology, with which the olor temperature is smoothly regulated from warm-white to cold-white and can be flexibly adapted to the use situation, the architecture and the premises. The color temperature can be changed within a range of 2,700 to 6,500 Kelvin without the LEDs having to be exchanged. The static condition of the artificial lighting is thus shifted to a dynamic process, which can be individually adjusted according to the lighting situation. Reflections on displays are avoided thanks to the diffusor element of the visual effect.
In the design, Zumtobel has tailored the active light solution with tunableWhite technology to three areas: For office environments, users can choose between the lighting options “Light Fields”, “Ondaria”, “Panos infinity” and “Slotlight infinity”. For presentation and sales areas, the options are “Iyon”, “Vivo”, “Discus” and “Panos infinity”. And for exhibition spaces in the area of art and culture, there is the LED spotlight system “Arcos”.
