Effects of colored lighting on the perception of interior spaces

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand the effects of colored lighting on the perception of interior spaces and to compare different colored lightings in order to understand their effects on interior space perception. The experiment was conducted with the same sample group for three different lightings which are red, green and white. The participants were ninety-seven students from different departments of Bilkent University, most of them from the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. The study was conducted in three phases. Firstly, participants were tested for color vision deficiencies and the ones who passed this test entered the first part of the experiment. They evaluated the experiment room under red lighting in the first phase. Secondly, they evaluated the experiment room under green lighting. Lastly, they evaluated the experiment room under white lighting. It was found that colored lighting (red and green) affects the perception of an interior space and the space perception differs according to the color of the lighting for some of the evaluative factors.