Light and Value: a design anthropology of light and well-being in hospital buildings

This chapter calls for, outlines and demonstrates a design anthropological approach to light in workplace environments. It argues that the experience and meaning of light is not simply driven by good design but by the values that are integral to workplace cultures and practices. This means that everyday meanings and uses of light are always contingent, and it is impossible to predict precisely how light will be experienced in any given situation. This chapter mobilises an anthropological conceptualisation of value to show how professional cultures and values shape people’s everyday experiences and uses of light. To do so, it draws ethnographic research to demonstrate how light was distributed, used and discussed in the context of a newly built hospital, and how the experience of natural versus artificial lighting in hospital environments is contingent on professional values. Therefore, the chapter argues that design for well-being through light and lighting benefits from accounting for design anthropological attention to everyday practice, cultures and values as well as quantitative measurements of environmental quality.