Perceptions of Light–Space Compositions: Is Light Like Language?

Referred to as “the prime animator of space,” light is a subject of broad application within the environmental design disciplines (Ching, 1987, p. 126). A scan of the literature demonstrates the diverse contexts in which light is studied. Recently, scholars posit that light is most often applied to an interior design solution as a functional additive rather than considered first as an essential design element along with form, color, texture, and others. This raises the question of how designers’, educators’, and students’ approaches to designing with light might be redefined to regard light as a significant contributor to spatial compositions. The purpose of this study was to test a new framework for understanding light as a design element. It did so by measuring whether light can be perceived through analogy to language. Suggesting that language and design are analogous in that they are both governed by rules of syntax—the orderly and systematic arrangement of parts—this study used language as a model for investigating the role of light in spatial compositions. Findings are presented from an exploratory study in which upper‐level interior design students were asked to respond to a series of photographs of compositions of light. An instrument was designed to measure participants’ perception of light in four primary linguistic roles: noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. Preliminary findings suggest that the linguistic model may be an effective analogy for exploring light’s role as a compositional element in interior space.