As one of the preferred methods of dressing up healthcare spaces, photographic murals offer uplifting imagery and thematic graphics that make isolated interiors identifiable, serving both as an intuitive wayfinding tool, as well as making hospital or clinic areas more attractive and memorable.
Luminous Virtual Windows, which stood out as the first virtual windows to emphasize the importance of the perceived horizon line (the farthest point in front of the occupant) and where it appears on the image in relation to the observer and their surroundings, has just achieved a new leap with the introduction of its next generation version—OpenView.
In Awe of Earth & Sky
OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows, winner of the Nightingale Awards—GOLD at the Healthcare Design Conference, redefines fine art landscape photography by freeing installations of scale limitations. OpenView can now be paired with a range of Luminous SkyCeilings, including Revelation, Aperture, and Custom Studio configurations to create dramatic illusory vistas that recess the perceived horizon line and the perceived zenith.
In addition, OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows can also be programmed to work in tandem with IRIS Tunable SkyCeilings, which raise the bar in term so the realism of the sunrise-to-sunset arc and the illuminance variability that both installations orchestrate to give enclosed interiors a palpable feeling of proximity to a relaxing and therapeutic visual connection to nature.
OpenView’s modular trim and lightbox system is fully customizable (in 1-foot increments), enabling designers to tailor width and height dimensions to outfit large interiors with equally breath-taking vistas. This enables wall installations to finally match the scalability range of our Luminous SkyCeilings to create Earth & Sky openings that invite the viewer to take in the sights, feel the expansive sense of distance, and alter their expectations of the built environment.
Terrapin Bright Green, the environmental consultancy who earned an Achievement Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) for its influential The Economics of Biophilia white paper recently added a 15th Biophilic Design Pattern—Awe, to its follow up white paper, The 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design.
Add a sense of awe to your next project by incorporating visual-spatial stimuli that defies our usual frame of reference indoors and usher a dramatic change in our autonomic nervous system with a deep relaxation response.
Highest Resolution & Unmatched Depth of Field
Limitless scalability enables architects and facility planners to mitigate the less-than-stellar experience that occupants feel in isolated interiors by incorporating window openings that deliver full scale panoramic views of nature that mimic the depth of field of the human eye.
The new OpenView photography also takes advantage of the high-resolution digital files and the focus stack technique that enables our photographers to create a master image with rich focus and detail across the field of view.
As a result, it is now possible to install a full window view spanning the width of any room, hallway or therapeutic area for rehabilitation or fitness, and depict a perceived outdoor view at a credible 1:1 scale.
The resulting vista, backlit using calibrated LED lighting in a custom-designed light box, features a narrower profile, making it ideal for both recessed into the wall and surface-mount installations.
OpenView: Sample Window Size & Array Configurations
OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows are modular backlit panels with individual panels ranging from 2’x2′ to 5’x’8′. These dimensions offer a wide range of flexibility for designers to create custom window arrays for their projects. Please note that combined panels (those that share a perimeter) are only available in recessed mount applications.
Design for Disassembly
OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows offer great features to both healthcare and commercial space facility managers. OpenView is engineered for disassembly, making the virtual window configurations easy to install, but also to dismount for relocation, maintenance or removal.
Once of the biggest ordeals for busy facility managers and their maintenance crews is maintenance to lighting fixtures or art installations that are difficult to access. OpenView was designed for the heavy-duty use of healthcare and commercial environments.
Despite their long life (50,000 hours) some LED diodes may flare out needing replacement. OpenView’s trim and lightbox design makes it easier for maintenance personnel to replace a diode or LED strip in the event of malfunction or end of service life.
Photographic Murals–A Representational History
Despite the universal appeal of murals and the wide range of substrates and finishes available, their chief representational weakness remains the work’s inability to break free from the wall. Almost by definition, a mural, is the wall itself. And while photographic murals can certainly spark our imagination, the fact remains that its depictions are symbolic, not spatial elements.
On the other hand, with framed art we begin to see the outlining of space into window-like portals that are self-contained. Framing serves to delineate the work in its own terms. However, while framed art and photography depict a vantage point into another place, they do so by capturing the observer’s attention within a frame of reference that is often at odds with the scale of the interior envelope.
In other words, the scale of these images differs from that of their placement. When the scale becomes architectural, then the image must be in harmony with its surroundings, requiring many more contextual and structural cues to make a virtual window look and feel like a credible and realistic vantage point.
Sky Factory is the only designer of evidence-based, virtual skylights that also provides continuing education courses on the benefits of biophilic design. Our family of Luminous SkyCeilings, OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows, and Digital Cinema applications are biophilic designed products that provide research-verified, architectural solutions for a range of healthcare and commercial spaces. To find out how Sky Factory can bring the healing presence of nature to your organization, contact us today.
