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Variations in light color show a distinct shift in the daylight that's brought into the space. Two colors of fluorescent light — white and bluish-purple — contribute to the change in hues. For Turrell, a Quaker, light also harbors meanings of a revelation, as in a bright idea, and he uses it to communicate feelings of transcendence and the divine.

Skyspaces have been constructed in Chicago, Seattle, and other places around the United States to offer visitors a privileged view of the sky as the light and shades of color shift, especially at dawn and dusk. In some spaces, built-in benches provide an opportunity for observers and to sit and experience the light.

Colored Cosmos

Dutch light artist Joost van Santen created another sort of skyspace in the University of Geneva Children's Hospital in Switzerland. He collaborated with architects in making a skylight that brings a rainbow into the underground waiting room using holographic materials and light from the street above. The rainbow moves as the earth turns. The effect is soothing and reassuring.

"I wanted the children to be in connection with the universe," van Santen says. "For a waiting room, a fast moving light would be unsettling. But if you have to wait in the hospital for ten minutes, say, then you become aware of the slow, deliberate movement of the rainbow as it inches across the space."

The rainbow, Van Santen adds, "... becomes a conscious connection to the slow processes of the cosmos. I want the outside world with the changes and cosmological cycles to enter inside. The colors and movement make you become more aware of these changes." For children and their families facing illnesses, the rainbow may be a symbol of hope.

Van Santen has worked with architects to incorporate diurnal changes in light and color in the Palace of Justice at The Hague, the ING Bank headquarters in Amsterdam, and the Emmen Ordnance building in Emmen, The Netherlands. "I can enrich architecture at a low cost if I'm brought in at the early stages of design," van Santen says.

He has worked with light in art and architecture since the 1970s and concedes that some architecture requires evenly lit spaces. For example, he placed translucent, painted light panels over all three of the large windows in his own studio space, but later reduced it to one panel because he liked the view and needed unfiltered daylight for his work.

Van Santen says that static spaces — long corridors and office spaces filled with unchanging, artificial light — deaden the atmosphere and cut people off from the larger life outside. He lights up stairwells and corridors with natural light from skylights and uses reflecting glass and holographic materials to transform a previously neutral or unpleasant space into a welcoming passageway at minimal cost.

"The means I use are very simple and sometimes only require changing the position of a window," van Santen says. "They require no electricity and so are cost efficient." His work prompts moments of meditation. For instance in the Emmen Ordnance building, office workers pause in the corridors to look into the light and images reflected onto the acrylic panels.

Mood Colors

The use of light and responses to it are the focus of study for the Light Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The center funds research and provides a scientific perspective of how light affects moods, productivity, and health.

The LRC claims that appropriate lighting can improve morale, alleviate seasonal affective disorder (SAD ), and even contribute to healing certain illnesses in hospitals. One study indicates that blue tones recall morning light and can be incorporated into electric office lighting systems to stimulate circadian rhythms at slower times of day, like after lunch. Pinkish-gold hues are more related to sunset and a relaxed time of day.

Van Santen says he recently began to integrate energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology into some of his work and likes the effect. However, he adds, "it is artificial and the opposite of what I want to realize. I want to get people to connect with universal space and the very slow processes that we're a part of."

Through skillful and conscious use of light, Van Santen, Turrell, Carpenter, and others give office workers, hospital patients, and even subway users moments of relief from controlled environments. They offer little glimpses into a broader connection to the earth, a greater awareness of place, and a natural sense of time.   >>>

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Debra Moffitt is an American writer based in Europe.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Play of light in Sweeney Chapel, designed by James Carpenter Design Associates. Photo: JCDA Glass boxes act as prisms. Photo: JCDA Schematic of the glass boxes. Image: JCDA Glazed courtyard of the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin, by James Carpenter Design Associates. Photo: Andreas Keller View out from the glazed courtyard of the German Foreign Ministry. Photo: Andreas Keller Glass ceiling of the German Foreign Ministry courtyard. Photo: Andreas Keller Skyspace by James Turrell: the "convertible roof" of the Live Oak Friends Meeting House in Houston. Photo: Joe Aker Skyspace augmented by colored electric light. Photo: Joe Aker   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.