Designing for vision: How interior design can support eye health.
Light, contrast and accessibility: Interior solutions for ageing eyes.
Do you understand the anatomy of the human eye and how changes to the eye during our lifetime impact how we see?
The eye is a globe that is made up of two zones, front and back. The front is the cornea, iris, and crystalline lens. The back is marked by the start of the retina and is where light waves merge to a single point at the macula, the signal is set via the optic nerve to the brain.
The eye has 2 lenses, the cornea, which focuses 70 percent of the light, and the clear crystalline lens, which focuses the remaining 30% of our vision. When we are young, the second lens can flex from convex to concave by the movement of small muscles in the eye to allow for near, intermediate, and far vision.
Understanding how the human eye changes as we age, can help us design our environments to support our eyesight.
Common age-related eye conditions:
40 years and older
Presbyopia: As we age, the ciliary muscles weaken, and the crystalline lens becomes dense and inflexible, reducing our range of focus, and we start to need glasses.
Glaucoma: A progressive eye disease causing optic nerve damage and potential vision loss. Characterised by increased eye pressure, it often develops silently without early symptoms and primarily affects peripheral vision. Treatment focuses on reducing eye pressure through medications, laser procedures, and surgical interventions.
60 years and older
Cataracts: cataracts form around the age of seventy from the crystalline lens becoming dense and cloudy, requiring lens exchange surgery. This is where the cataract is removed, and a very small prescriptive intraocular lens is implanted into the eye. The surgery takes 15 minutes per eye. A sign of Cataract formation is blurry vision, sensitivity to glare, double vision, or distortion of colours.
Reduced Iris aperture: Iris becomes less mobile and doesn't dilate fully, so less light enters the eye. To counteract this, more natural and artificial light is needed for near and intermediate tasks, such as reading, cooking, and using electronic devices.
Interior Design solutions to vision impairment.
While these eye conditions are just a few issues people experience with their eyesight as they age, how can we adapt our environment to suit our eyes?
Bright light is important
Brighter light will allow more light into the eye and increase vision, so it’s important to have layered lighting. These include bright light for tasks such as reading, cooking, and fine detail tasks.
Lighting as wayfinding:
Low-level sensor lighting comes on to help guide the way between rooms. Such as the bedroom to the bathroom or having a kitchen light that is linked to the entry to guide the way through the house at night.
High contrast colours
Blue and yellow spectrum light is the last colour seen by people experiencing vision loss. It is also highly contrasting. Contrasting colours are a great way to highlight areas in the house, such as a favourite chair, transition spaces in the house, such as moving through rooms, and changes in floor levels.
Reduce glare
Reduce reflective surfaces, such as stainless steel, polished floor tiles, and glass. When light shines off these surfaces, and into your eyes, the intense glare can cause vertigo and be very debilitating. Use matte material to reduce glare, have shields installed on LED lights, and use washes of light on walls instead of overhead light glare. Lumens should be calculated to ensure enough light is being generated for specific tasks.