Healthcare Lighting Lighting

20220108 Wakefield Imaging 0003 HiRes OV 7aer Earth&Sky Cropped (1)

Learn Why Research-Verified Luminous Virtual SkyCeilings & Luminous Virtual Windows Stand Apart from Artificial Skylights

Elevate the patient experience and boost staff wellbeing with research-verified & evidence-based solutions in the Environment of Care (EoC).

Hospital lighting plays a crucial role in providing the best environment of care. In addition to overbed lighting and specialty lighting for diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitation spaces, evidence-based design (EBD) Luminous SkyCeilings (virtual LED skylights) have earned the trust of leading hospitals around the world.

Sky Factory’s biophilic illusions of nature have earned more healthcare design awards than any other virtual skylight manufacturer for one simple reason: they enliven the experience of vastness and healing that nature, in well composed open skies, effortlessly evoke. Sky Factory’s design framework incorporates cognitive psychology principles and ingrained habits of perception, which make our artistic craftsmanship part of the NeuroArts.

Sky Factory Installations Featured in All Top 20 Hospitals
Ranked by U.S. News & World Report

Evidence-Based Design (EBD): Award-Winning Research

Pioneering Neuroarchitecture Study with Texas Tech University

Sky Factory’s Open Sky Compositions remain the only overhead sky imagery used in virtual skylight applications in healthcare settings with peer reviewed research verifying its ability to deepen the relaxation response and engage areas of the brain involved in depth perception and spatial cognition, thereby creating a therapeutic illusion of nature.

The neuroarchitecture study, published in the Health Environments Research & Design Journal (2014) earned a Certificate of Research Excellence (CORE) from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and have been presented in international forums, including the European Healthcare Design Conference, the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, and the American Congress for Rehabilitation Medicine. No other artificial skylight meets Sky Factory’s benchmark standards for verified positive patient outcomes in healthcare settings.

A second Texas Tech University study in collaboration with Covenant Health found that Luminous SkyCeilings, even when installed in patient rooms with window views (to urban settings) ushered a statistically significant reduction in patient stress and anxiety. This study indicated the healing power of compositional elements in a photographic Open Sky Composition designed to be perceived as a depth illusion rather than as a representational or symbolic image of the sky as depicted by standard LED panels. Architectural illusions of nature require a much richer array of 20+ compositional and structural cues to entice our hardwired habits of perception and seduce our biophilic memories of this visceral experience.

TSF Press Release Covenant Logos Graphic Flat

Look Beyond LED Skylights: Luminous SkyCeilings & OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows for Patient-Centered Care and Wellness

Relax and Soothe Patients Under Stress
Reduce and Mitigate Workplace Burnout
Improve Health and Positive Outcomes
Enhance Emotional Balance and Resilience
Boost Higher Patient Satisfaction Scores

Sky Factory’s research-verified design framework goes beyond positive distraction to alleviate stress, reduce pain perception, and alleviate patient anxiety. Our LED skylight panels are illusions of nature that generate healing biophilic engagement through a visual-spatial experience tailored to extend the perceived horizon line within a broad architectural vista that invites the imagination to roam, Sky Factory Luminous SkyCeilings (virtual skylights) and OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows bring nature inside isolated or windowless rooms, providing a more restorative environment of care for patients and their families while also supporting caregivers through a beautiful and uplifting workplace.

Sky Factory products bring the beauty of nature in stunning scale and vivid detail in a cost-effective way that transforms any healthcare setting, clinical area (diagnostic, therapeutic, acute, or for patient recovery), devoid of a visual connection to nature, into a healing and supportive environment of care. OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows can be recessed or surface-mounted on the wall while our family of Luminous SkyCeilings are designed to be placed overbed, as well as in a number of diagnostic, therapeutic, and specialty patient care settings.

Diagnostic & Therapeutic Radiology

Improve Patient Outcomes

20220108 Wakefield Imaging 0003 HiRes OV 7aer Earth&Sky Fixing sent for approval — OpenView Luminous Virtual Window & Revelation SkyCeiling MRI Suite (render).

9514 78 circular virtual skylight — Custom Ellipse Luminous SkyCeiling at Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital.

Kaiser wall and ceiling install Retouching Fixed 8.16.24 — Custom Luminous SkyCeiling & Virtual Window Configuration at Kaiser Permanente facility.

TSF NorthfieldHospital62 LSC cropped Flat — Revelation SkyCeiling in MRI Suite, Northfield Hospital, MN.

TSF MedicaSurLinacMEX59 LSC Fixed — Elliptical SkyCeiling in LINAC Suite, Medica Sur.

Diagnostic and therapeutic imaging settings are full of sophisticated equipment. Luminous SkyCeilings, with a unique approach to healthcare lighting, ameliorate claustrophobia in reduced and stressful spaces by generating a perceived opening overhead.

Our biophilic illusions of nature reset the perceived zenith, the highest point above the head of the observer, giving the illusory sky its characteristic peacefulness in windowless or confining interiors.

No one enters our CyberKnife vault without commenting on the beauty of the Luminous SkyCeiling.
Richard L. Deming, MD, Medical Director of MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center

Lobbies, Hallways and Work Stations

Enhance workplace wellness

When public areas feature sightlines to a natural landscape or an overhead view of the sky, even if illusory, the scene engages our biophilic memories, helping patients and staff relax.

Earth & Sky installations boost biophilic engagement. Hospitals with restorative sightlines help the environment of care be a source of meaningful respite. Studies comparing patient satisfaction scores with HCAHPS surveys have shown that better working environments are associated with higher scores on every patient satisfaction survey question.

These studies confirm that staff wellness and the patient experience are well correlated.

Light&Lines Studio Render v5 Final Flat 1920px crop — OpenView Luminous Virtual Window & Revelation Luminous SkyCeiling, Healthcare Lobby (render).

Wilmot Sanz — An Array of Aperture SkyCeilings for hospital wayfinding (render).

TSF DelnorNursesStation34 LSC Fixed — Custom Elliptical SkyCeiling over NICU Nurses Station, Delnor Hospital, Chicago, IL.

Kingwood Medical Center Women and Childrens Neo Natal ICU Fixed R3 — Custom Circular SkyCeiling at Kingwood Women’s Medical Center, Kingwood, TX.

Behavioral & Mental Health

Hospitality-Inspired Patient Centered Care

TSF BoulderAsso2 eSea fixed cropped dc annimation 200dpi — eSea Digital Cinema Virtual Aquarium at Eating Recovery Center-Willow, Boulder, CO.

PLC Psych ICU Nurses Station1 fixed layers Person Added cropped — Custom Luminous SkyCeiling Psych ICU Nurses Station, Alberta, Canada.

PLC Psych ICU Skylight2 fixed (1) — Custom Luminous SkyCeiling Psych ICU, Alberta, Canada.

TSF DiginityMercySanJuanMedicalCenter 5412 Render Fixed jpg — Revelation SkyCeiling, Behavioral Health Crisis Stabilization Unit, San Jose, CA.

Eating recovery square — Revelation SkyCeiling, SPA Bathroom, Eating Recovery Center-Willow, Boulder, CO.

Facilities that feature a more welcoming environment for onboarding can help disarm the apprehension and distress generated by the crisis at hand. In-take spaces that aim for crisis stabilization require environmental features that communicate safety, privacy, and empathy.

Sightlines to natural scenes and a vantage point to open skies infuse clinical spaces with spatial relief, visual comfort and empathetic engagement as foliage and drifting clouds evoke memorable features most prevalent in hospitality design.

No one enters our CyberKnife vault without commenting on the beauty of the Luminous SkyCeiling.
Richard L. Deming, MD, Medical Director of MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center

Patient Treatment & ED Rooms

Biophilic Sightlines Reduce Stress and Relieve Anxiety

The Environment of Care (EoC) is recognized as a key driver in patient recovery. Sensory-rich spaces and a meaningful visual connection to nature engage areas of the brain linked to our imagination, emotional resilience and memories of the outdoors, which also stimulate our immune response.

In delicate situations like neonatal ICUs, ED bays, and post-op rooms, an overhead view of a clear blue sky, clouds and foliage rekindles our innate connection to life.

The Luminous SkyCeilings have enhanced our patients’ surgical visits. The sense of nature, peace, and calmness permeates the recovery room area. It is the talk of the community!
Joyce Deno – Chief Operating Officer, Regent Surgical Health

OpenviewRenderDental — OpenView Luminous Virtual Window at NICU suite (render).

TSF WBRCArchitedtsDialysis3 LSC Fixed — Revelation SkyCeilings at the Northern Light Health Dialysis Nurse Station, Presque Isle, ME.

TSF WBRCArchitedtsDialysis1 LSC Fixed — Revelation SkyCeilings over the Northern Light Health Dialysis Nurse Station, Presque Isle, ME.

Tsf covenant lsc — Covenant Health Surgical In-Patient Room with Luminous SkyCeiling, Lubbock, TX.

Specialty Clinics & Senior Living (Neurology, Memory Care)

Properly Scaled Vistas to Nature Engage Our Memory and Imagination

TSF FinnishInstituteOH75 LSC Fixed cropped — Luminous SkyCeiling for this biophilic design reception area at the Finnish Institute.

TSF FinnishInstituteOH73 LSC Fixed cropped — Biophilic design elements for the reception area at the Finnish Institute feature a rectilinear Luminous SkyCeiling.

TSF FinnishInstituteOH74 LSC Fixed cropped — A Luminous SkyCeiling (virtual skylight) opens up an isolated reception area in Finland.

Applications Senior Living Serenades 1a — Revelation SkyCeiling, Senior Living Facility, Serenades.

Not all residents at long-term care (LTC) facilities have easy access to natural surroundings. A combination of staff shortages, cognitive decline, and safety concerns due to other ailments often keep many residents bound indoors.

While never a substitute for a gentle walk in the garden or seating outdoors in the morning sun, credible landscape vistas or overhead openings can viscerally expand our perceived spatial footprint, provided much needed relief from confining clinical interiors.