On April 29, 2014, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) affiliate Kingwood Medical Center celebrated the grand opening of the South Tower and the three-story Women and Children’s Center.
This $80 million, 155,400 square-foot expansion, included 4 custom 18-foot Luminous SkyCeiling circles on the first floor. These biophilic illusions of nature were incorporated into the architectural design to create a palpable feeling of openness in the enclosed hallways that connect 8 high-risk antepartum suites, 12 spacious labor and delivery suites, and a 24-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, among other specialty rooms.
The color temperature of the daylight-quality artificial light used to illuminate the high-resolution digital photography (high CRI 6500K), in addition to the patented elevators that recess the SkyTiles away from the rest of the ceiling, create a palpable illusion of overhead skies while altering our perception of depth in enclosed interiors.
This is custom Luminous SkyCeiling design is a useful case study illustrating how this creative adaptation of healthcare lighting to create illusory skies can deliver positive clinical and therapeutic outcomes.
