When most people think of an office building, they think of glittering towers made of windows on every side. But those offices are more than the outer surface area that is exposed to natural light. Inside any decently-sized office building are a large number of offices and other spaces that have no windows at all. Even skylights are out of the question for floors that are not at the top. Architects have done their best, but it's up to building owners and occupying businesses to make those interior windowless offices actually enjoyable to work in.
The single thing that every windowless office space has in common is electric lighting. After all, no natural light can reach them. So the quality of your electric lighting makes a profound impact on the quality of the rooms themselves. This is one reason why businesses are prioritizing LED lighting upgrades in interior offices where it is needed most.
Today, we're here to share four useful and evocative ways to use new LED light installations to make these windowless offices not just less depressing, but so desirable that employees will clamor for their chance to occupy them.
The starting place for providing high-quality lighting in windowless offices is to simulate natural light. LED lights distributed behind soft diffusers can do just that. You can simulate the quality, color, and strength of natural light at any time of day to make those internal rooms feel like they are lit by big beautiful windows even when they are not.
Some employers enjoy color-shifting LEDs that simulate the effect a real-time skylight might have while others optimize employee productivity by picking the most motivating shade of simulated natural light so that the morning doldrums and afternoon slump never even enter the awareness of internal office employees.
Another interesting option is to use the same simulated natural light technique not on the ceiling, but on large diffusser panels set into the walls. You can create the impression of natural light coming through frosted glass or even filmy hung curtains. In this way, the occupants of windowless offices can enjoy a flood of seemingly natural sunlight through beautiful windows even on days when real-world clouds may bring down employees who have real windows.
Simulated and LED-illuminated windows can also create any daylight impression your employees prefer. Those who prefer storm clouds, for example, can dim and gray their window lights while other employees stuck in internal offices can feel like they are soaked in sunlight even when they are burning the midnight oil.
Want to give your internal office employees something to look at that is more beautiful than the view outside the real windows? Use a stunning cityscape or skyline as your diffuser window instead. Backlit images on diffusing plastic panels can be set into your interior walls to create the impression of a breathtaking view even for offices that wouldn't have a view even if they had windows.
When you give interior offices a better view and simulated natural light than those with real windows, your employees may start competing for who gets to work in the most beautiful and productivity-inspiring offices.
Finally, there are even solutions for your darkness-dwelling employees who prefer to switch off the lights and work from the glow of monitors alone. Backlighting is one of the most elegant and visually appealing ways to achieve a seemingly-dark room while actually providing plenty of illumination for those who need it. Backlit and bevel-lit strips of LED lighting can make your offices look amazing when the overhead lights are turned out. Lighting the underside of desks, the back edges of whiteboards, the outer edges of doorways, etc. can give your interior offices lighting that will deeply please employees who prefer to work in a cooler environment instead of simulated sunshine.
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How will you improve your interior windowless offices? With LED lighting installations and upgrades, there's no limit to how beautiful and surprisingly desirable you can make spaces that were once blank and dreary. Contact us today to find out more about what LED lighting can do for your business, employee satisfaction, and overall work environment.