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Wherever Whenever - Work Culture Festival 2024: Prof. Dr. Axel Buether

Colour and Lighting Design: Impact on Wellbeing, Health and Work Motivation

Colour is the largest and most powerful communication system in nature and culture. Colour vision is so important to our species that it takes up most of our brain capacity. The multiple effects of colour on human experience and behaviour are at the heart of modern, evidence-based colour psychology.

Using examples from his research and design work, Prof. Dr. Axel Buether clearly demonstrated the influence of light and colour on people’s well-being, health, satisfaction and work motivation. Based on the evolutionary biological background of colour effects, Prof. Dr. Buether made it clear how directly colours work and that every sensory perception is associated with an expectation. For office buildings, this means that colour and light influence not only the well-being of employees and visitors, but also their expectations of the company. 
The projects presented and the accompanying studies impressively demonstrated how the effects of colour and light can be systematically planned and evaluated. 

A detailed report on the lecture will be available in the IBA Forum Newsroom from August 2025. 


Photo: © IBA

Impact

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Impact

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I. Burroni, M. Führ, J. Knudsen, A.Tisch, V. Wessels

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Axel Buether

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Martin Führ

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