Lifestyle
Bad lighting makes you unhappy
By DPA
Nov 17, 2005, 8:43 GMT

Munich - Lighting in the home affects your mood and can make you unhappy, if it is badly arranged, according to one of Germany's leading light and product designers Ingo Maurer.

'There is a general tendency in many homes to light up the whole room with a lamp placed in the middle of the ceiling which makes people in the room look unsightly,' Maurer told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

'Light from above does not make people look nice. Bad light makes you unhappy,' he was quoted as saying.

Maurer's best advice is to take nature as an example where there are many forms of light from the dark of night to bright sunlight with many shades inbetween.

Different light sources mainly from lamps add to a warm atmosphere, especially in the living room. Maurer especially recommends the light be placed below the eye level and sometimes on the floor.

'Light has much to do with a feeling and a feeling must be right,' he said and rejected dogmatic arguments such as a light right above table.

Maurer, described by Paris fashion designer Issey Miyake, as 'the best light director in the world' has designed numerous lamps and bulbs some of which are exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.