Lighting has been a crucial part of urban and public-built environments for ages. Beyond its ability for aesthetic appeal, it is interesting to observe how environmental lighting influences an individual on a much deeper level, specifically its impact on the occupant's experiences, behavior, cognition, and well-being. This electroencephalography (EEG) study attempts to investigate the effects of two distinct environmental lighting conditions—natural light (NL) versus hybrid light (HL)—on neural activity within and across academic-built environments. Sixty-three participants underwent three stages: (1) a 1 min walkthrough of four distinct classroom-built environments (BEs); (2) a 20 min arithmetic cognitive task to clear working memory; and (3) passive viewing of 120 randomized pictures of the classrooms (80: NL vs. 40: HL) with systematic interior lighting variations. The stimuli were designed using Unity Software version 2021.3.16, maintaining a constant volume and systematic variation in lightmap properties, ensuring accurate and balanced lighting simulation. Statistical analysis using cluster mass permutation t-tests, conducted with the mass univariate toolbox, revealed a significant difference in the 80–120 ms time window at occipital regions, indicative of early visual processing. ERPs underwent cluster mass permutation testing with 5000 within-participant permutations, revealing significant differences at parietal-occipital sites for HL-NL comparisons in the 80–120 ms time window. Furthermore, no interaction effects between lighting and BE-type were observed. Findings suggest that architectural lighting variations modulate early visual neural responses despite varying spatial designs, highlighting the significance of lighting conditions in designing conducive BEs.