Colour and lighting design for indoor recreation facilities

Abstract

Most of us spend a lot of time seeing what is around us and responding accordingly. Living in a highly urban society, furthermore, we tend to carry out a large range of recreational pursuits in indoor facilities - in which we automatically respond to the use made of colour and lighting. It is therefore of importance to those responsible for the provision and design of indoor recreation facilities to be aware of the extent to which colour and light may be used in these facilities in ways that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing for the user groups. The effect the use of colour will have in an interior will depend on such factors as the extent to which individual colours are used in a space and the interactive effect the juxtaposed colours have on each other. Light, similarly, has exploitable properties that enable a skillful designer to create effects ranging from a uniform level of light in a space to the dramatic effects we find in theatre lighting. If a successful total effect is to be achieved, the first requirement of the designer is thus that he or she have a good practical understanding of the relationships of colour and colour effect, colour and light, and of both to architectural form. The other most important requirement of the designer is that he or she use as parameters for design the specific seeing needs and visual preferences of the potential users of the facility. Seeing needs to be considered may, for example, include needing to locate the building, needing to maintain concentration on a rapidly moving object and needing sometimes to relax completely from end-motivated looking. In instances such as the first two, the eye is largely occupied with the business of looking for desired and relatively familiar details in the visual environment. As soon as they are seen the information is transmitted to the brain, leading to further responses of thinking feeling and doing. The extent to which these seeing needs are met depends upon the ease with which the details sought may be discerned.