Improve Sun Glare in your Workplace

Research shows that natural light improves the quality of life for workers. If your workplace gets too much direct sunlight, however, this can have the complete opposite effect on employee happiness and productivity. 

Although sun glare in office buildings can be a challenge at any time of the year (and can actually be particularly noticeable in the winter when the sun is low in the sky) the advent of spring heralds the beginning of the real sun glare season.

For Facility Managers looking after their buildings, now is the time to be thinking about a solution, rather than waiting until the full height of the summer when all your staff are sweating and struggling to see anything on their monitors!

The problem with glass

Glassy atriums and offices with a lot of glass certainly look attractive and often have the wow factor visually, but when it comes to being inside them on a sunny day at any time during the year, it is essentially like being in a greenhouse. This can be particularly troublesome and uncomfortable for the reception staff and visitors in a glass reception area or atrium.

Excessive glare in an office makes it difficult for workers to see computer screens and direct sunlight onto glazing can cause the interior of a building to overheat very quickly, resulting in problems such as headaches, eye strain, fatigue and irritability - all potentially reducing productivity and morale.

How can Tensile Fabric help?

Adding interior fabric sails into your building can not only offer a very practical sun shading solution, but the sails are cost effective and can also create a visually striking aesthetic feature in the space. 

We are experts in interior fabrics and understand which fabric will be required for a particular space. We use a sun path analysis programme to predict the correct shape and orientation required all year round. Based on these findings we then design and create a bespoke set of structures and strategically install them to ensure perfect positioning to solve the problem. 

The beauty of adding in a fabric feature is that you can still see through it – allowing a view out of the window and without stopping the light transmission, while at the same time reducing heat and glare from the sun. For example, we might choose a class O fire rated mesh fabric with an openness factor of 1% for some high-level fins – providing a vision of light above whilst preventing all of the glare. 

Sails can also be customised with a company logo or colours to tie in with your branding and help create a feature, or they can act as signage. 

Choose sail shades and:

• Create a happy working environment 
• Enhance employee productivity and comfort 
• Reduce sun glare and heat 
• Create an interesting internal feature 

View our interior sun shading portfolio.

Contact us to discuss your interior project. 

By Abi Smith, 5/11/2023