he emphasized that architects should select healthy sites for their
buildings, and that careful design of buildings prevented illness. It was
clear that the healthy site was one which was oriented to permit the
introduction of natural light. Vitruvius was the first to study the
qualitative and quantitative aspects of daylight, proposing explicit rules
to assess whether an interior is well daylit.
We may have moved a great deal further than this now, but poor
daylighting and the lack of sunlight is said to be responsible for what is
described as ‘Seasonal Affected Disorder’ or SAD, which affects a large
number of people at certain times of the year due to the lack of sunlight.
It is not a coincidence that given the choice, people prefer to work in
daylight, and choose to locate close to a window. The presence of natural
light at times when it is available in a building, is an important
environmental consideration.
It is often forgotten that people are the major asset and expense of a
company. To get relative costs into perspective, the annual lighting costs
of a person in an office can be the equivalent to only 3–4 hours salary. If
staff are visually impaired through inadequate working conditions and
poor lighting, their productivity will deteriorate and output may decline
on a scale far greater than the gains which might occur from the
installation of more energy efficient (but less user friendly) lighting.
Poor lighting can affect workers’ health, badly designed or poorly
maintained lighting can cause stress and lead to various forms of
complaint, eye discomfort, vision or posture. Dry or itching eyes,
migraines, aches, pains and other symptoms, often known as Sick
Building Syndrome, can be caused by poor or inappropriate lighting
installations. A purely energy efficient approach to workplace lighting,
which pays little or no attention to user comfort, could turn out to be both
ugly and ineffective.
It would be a mistake to adopt energy efficiency as the principal
measure of good lighting, and whilst important, it should be balanced
against those other factors leading to a comfortable and pleasant
environment.
18 Daylighting: Natural Light in Architecture
View from roof top restaurant at Peter Jones
storeDaylit Health Spa at Hotel in Abu DhabiDP ArchiveDP Archive