Tahlia Landrigan on how light shapes our emotional connection to home.
Light is more than illumination – it’s the invisible thread that binds us to place. In interior design, understanding light’s profound psychological impact has become essential for creating spaces that truly feel like home. Designers have long considered its functional aspects – brightness levels, energy efficiency, visual comfort – but the most transformative spaces use light as a tool for emotional connection.
The relationship between light and place runs deeper than aesthetics. Light fundamentally shapes how we experience space, influencing everything from our circadian rhythms to our sense of safety and belonging. When used with intent, lighting can transform even the most utilitarian environments into spaces that feel personal and alive.
As homes become more fluid—doubling as offices, retreats, and social spaces—interior designers are rethinking how light supports these shifting functions. A growing majority of homeowners now see the design of their home as more important than ever1“Homeowner survey reveals how COVID-19 has changed what we want from our homes,” ScienceDirect, 2022.. Around a quarter of workdays in the U.S. are still spent at home2“Working From Home Is Here to Stay. Designers Are Rethinking Home Offices and Wellness Spaces,” The Wall Street Journal, 2024., and demand for flexible layouts—from wellness zones to home offices—continues to rise3“5 Ways the Pandemic Changed Home Design Preferences,” NewHomeSource, 2025.. In this context, lighting becomes a dynamic tool, helping designers shape spaces that adapt to mood, purpose, and time of day.
Philosopher O.F. Bollnow described the emotional difference between “dayspace” and “nightspace” – the transition that light helps us navigate4O.F. Bollnow, Human Space, trans. Christine Shuttleworth (Hyphen Press, 2011). Originally published in German as Mensch und Raum (1956).. Natural and artificial sources, layered and timed with care, influence how we arrive, how we rest, and how we reconnect. The emotional dimension of lighting is no longer a luxury – it’s foundational to feeling at home.
In interior design, place is never just physical. It’s a layered experience—part spatial, part sensory, and deeply emotional. It holds memory, evokes feeling, and reflects how people live and move through their environments. Light is one of the most powerful tools designers use to shape that experience, giving space rhythm, warmth, and depth.
Natural light brings a temporal quality to place. Its movement across the day subtly changes the mood and materiality of interiors – activating surfaces, softening edges, revealing colour in ways no artificial source can replicate. While unpredictable, its presence can be anticipated and harnessed through careful spatial planning and material selection.
Artificial light, by contrast, offers precision and consistency. Designers can adjust intensity, tone, and distribution to support how a space is used – whether to energise, calm, focus or rest. Used together, natural and artificial light form an invisible architecture of their own: a shifting overlay that transforms static rooms into responsive, emotionally attuned places.
“Lighting is a dynamic tool that helps designers shape spaces that adapt to mood, purpose, and time of day.”
It’s a dry summer’s day. The sky is cloudless, the sun relentless, and the air is dry in my mouth as I’m walking to the water. The hours seem to stretch out endlessly and time feels slower, drawn out by the heat of the day. The sun, bright and intense on my face. I remember those summer days vividly growing up by the beach, many hours spent in the sea and on the sand. The sun would glisten on the water, shimmering like a sheet of light stretched across the ocean. The sand beneath my feet, warm and soft. The light itself seemed to have texture—thick and golden, wrapping itself around everything. Inescapable and tiring.
As the day would begin to end and the sun disappeared, there was a shift in atmosphere and mood. The strong summer daylight softening and sinking into darkness. Moving out of the visible sightlines and lightness of ‘day space’ into a new space. ‘Nightspace.’ An atmosphere, as said by O.F Bollnow, to ‘be concealed by the dayspace, containing different characteristics that seem to surround us in a sheltering manner’. Limiting sightlines but also containing them. Restricting them to closeness instead.
The house would fill with the warm, gentle glow of lamps, flicking on as the daylight faded. With the smell of dinner cooking from inside, I would step through the door, into the warmth and light of the house, feeling grounded. Like a warm embrace. It was comfort. It was safety. It was home. The atmospheric qualities held by light in the transitions of day to night holds an emotional attachment to these memories. The physical shelter of the house in combination with the metaphysical associations of light, formed a strong connection of home. Holding with me now, a nostalgic connection to place and informed a baseline for my ideas of spatial comfort in the home. Reflecting on those experiences, I can understand how profound the role of light was in shaping them.
Ambient lighting strategy.
In recent years, the home has evolved from a static setting into a dynamic, multifunctional place—part workplace, part retreat, part gathering space. This transformation has shifted how interior designers think about comfort, flexibility, and emotional wellbeing. Light, in particular, has emerged as a key medium for supporting these expanded roles.
As people spend more time attuned to their surroundings, there’s been a growing awareness of how lighting affects mood, energy, and focus. The market for home-focused lighting products reflects this shift: demand for dimmable lighting alone is projected to double between 2019 and 20331http://Data Insights Market. Dimmable Light Market – Global Industry Trends and Forecast to 2033., and the U.S. residential lighting fixtures market is growing steadily year on year2Grand View Research. U.S. Residential Lighting Fixtures Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product, By Distribution Channel, By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 – 2030.. These trends point to a broader desire to personalise the home—using lighting not just for function, but to create atmosphere, restore calm, and support a sense of sanctuary.
This heightened sensitivity to our environment has staying power. It prompts new questions for designers: How can light help people feel anchored, focused, or at ease in their own homes? How do we design for emotion, not just function?
“As people spend more time attuned to their surroundings, there’s been a growing awareness of how lighting affects mood, energy, and focus.”
At Emerald Place in South Melbourne, a new mixed-use development by Lowe Living, our design addresses varied spatial conditions across 38 apartments, ranging from two to four bedrooms. Constraints such as orientation, sightlines, daylight access, ventilation, amenity, building codes, and functional layouts naturally create differing experiences of natural light.
To counter this variability, each apartment incorporates a curated lighting strategy—an additional layer that deepens the emotional connection to home. In collaboration with lighting designer Adrian Pizzey, the lighting design introduces intentional layering across apartments and shared spaces. Light is treated as a material in its own right: scaled, directed, and modulated to mirror the rhythms of daily life and the memory of returning home.
Adrian describes light as “a quiet but powerful part of the design story,” one that’s often underestimated in its ability to shape how we feel in a space—especially during the winter months, when natural light is limited and artificial light becomes our primary source of connection and comfort. His approach to Emerald Place focused on avoiding generic layouts in favour of lighting plans that respond directly to the furniture and architectural features of each room. By introducing light at various levels—through wall washes, concealed pelmets, lamps and floor-level fittings—the result is a scheme that brings rhythm, intimacy and warmth.
The experience begins in the entry lobby, softly illuminated by lamps and concealed pelmet lighting. Inside each residence, light shifts from task-focused kitchen zones to intimate living spaces lit with low-level lamps and directional lighting for artwork. Smart home upgrades offer residents further control and personalisation – ensuring each home feels not only functional, but entirely their own.
Ambient light in the Emerald Place residential lobby (render)
Natural light in Emerald Place’s Signature Collection kitchen (render).
“Thoughtful lighting is never just about brightness—it’s about atmosphere, comfort, and making a space feel considered and lived in. When integrated with intention, lighting becomes a quiet but powerful part of the design story, deeply enhancing the way residents experience their home.”
Daylight in Emerald Place’s Signature Collection living room (render).
Layered lighting does more than illuminate- it sets a tone, frames a mood, and creates space for life to unfold. From calming bathroom glows to bright, focused task lighting, each element is designed to support comfort, clarity, and emotional connection. These are not just apartments—they are frameworks for living.
By treating light as a dynamic material, interior designers can shape how people feel, move, and belong within a space. It’s a subtle architecture of memory and mood—one that transforms interiors into sanctuaries. Light becomes the final, vital layer that turns a structure into a home.
We’re not simply designing with light. We’re designing with feeling—and for the fundamental human need to feel at home.
Lighting in Emerald Place’s main ensuite (photo of display suite by Dave Kulesz).
Lighting in Emerald Place’s kitchen (photo of display suite by Dave Kulesz).
Tahlia Landrigan is a dexterous and versatile designer with experience spanning the residential, retail, hospitality and workplace sectors. With a passion for clean forms and honest, authentic materials, Tahlia’s practice is informed by the foundational principles of good design. Her empathetic and people-centric approach informs the generosity in her work, and her narrative-driven process engenders connection to place in her projects. With an eye for bespoke detailing and craftsmanship, Tahlia is a champion for local makers and enduring design objects. A firm advocate for equity and diversity in the built environment, Tahlia drives the studio’s reconciliation action, driving cultural competency and impactful awareness within the industry.
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Tess is Woods Bagot’s Global Insights and Communications Leader. Passionate about clarity, relevance and the creation of genuinely interesting content, Tess works with our innovators to create insights on the future of design, as applied to its impact on how we live, work, travel, play, learn, stay healthy and anything in-between. See Woods Bagot’s Insights for more.