Lighting in school environments: participatory design methods through workshop explorations at a pre-design phase

This study focuses on a workshop exploration based on participatory methods before lighting interventions at a primary school in east-central Sweden. This approach is based on participatory design (PD) principles, aiming to support teachers’ and pupils’ voices within educational research (ER), lighting design, and architecture disciplines. Two workshops are presented, one addressing teachers ( n = 5) and the other addressing pupils ( n = 33). The first workshop focused on lighting perception, while the second addressed pupils’ choices of space for certain learning activities. Results from teachers’ work revealed that higher light levels are evaluated more favorably for on-screen activities. Furthermore, shadow evaluation was the factor that varied the most when comparing the two lighting scenarios. Additionally, pupils’ preferred working location depended on their activity, and the proximity to daylight was higher for individual tasks than group discussions. Findings from both workshops were later implemented as design directions to inform a larger research project on school lighting interventions.