Bring me sunshine: Indoor fittings recreate natural light indoors

The system offers a range of options from an intense tropical light to a balanced Mediterranean hue and soft Nordic ambiences. The fittings, which can be applied to walls and ceilings, have been designed to look like skylights, lending a sense of space to formerly enclosed rooms.

‘We have lost our familiarity with light because we are always inside,’ says professor Paolo di Trapani of Como's Insubria University. ‘We developed a home-made sun, using LED with spectral features, direction and strength so that when you look through the window you see the sky and the sun with realistic depth.’

A spin-off of research conducted by di Trapani, CoeLux was the result of experiments that recreated the ‘beautiful yet subtle’ interplay of light with natural objects.

The fittings have already proved popular in high-end residences, hotels and spas, and have attracted interest from hospitals, where it is thought that the therapeutic effects of natural light will benefit patients forced to spend long periods indoors.

For more on how brands are creating illusory interiors, read our Haptic Illusion design direction.