Daylight

PASSIVE RESILIENCE

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen and Veera Saastamoinen

KEY READINGS

• Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., Designing for the climate emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, RIBA

• Nick Baker and Koen Steemers, Healthy Homes: Designing with Light and Air for Sustainability and Wellbeing, RIBA

• Vivienne Brophy and J. Owen Lewis, A Green Vitruvius: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural Design, Routledge

• Rosa Urbano Gutierrez and Laura de la Plaza Hidalgo, Elements of Sustainable Architecture, Routledge

• Huw Heywood, 101 Rules of Thumb for Low Energy Architecture, RIBA

• Pelsmakers, S.  The Environmental Design Pocketbook, RIBA

• Kimpian, J., Hartman, H., Pelsmakers, S., Energy, People Buildings: Making Sustainable Architecture Work, RIBA

• Lechner, Norbert, and C. Wallace. Heating, Cooling, Lighting : Sustainable Design Methods for Architects. Fourth edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

• Architype Architects – The Enterprise Centre, Norwich, UK

• Alvar Aalto, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark 

• Glenn Murcutt, Marie Short/Glenn Murcutt House, Kempsey, Australia 

• Herzog & de Meuron, Dominus Winery, California, USA 

• Sauerbruch Hutton, GSW Headquarters Tower, Berlin, Germany 

• Muzharul Islam, The College of Arts and Crafts, Dhaka, Bangladesh 

DAYLIGHT

One of the most important passive resilience approaches for your project is that of well daylit spaces and good views to outside appropriate to the building’s intended functions and user’s needs. Daylight and views / connection to outside are crucial for well-being, and reduce energy use. Good daylighting depends on plan depth and ceiling height, window locations and sizes and internal finishes and external reflections. Design should ‘lock in’ access to daylight at early stages: making changes is often not possible once built. You should use the 8 rules of thumb to design for good daylighting in your project:

1.    Avoid deep plans: good daylight reaches maximum 2x depth of plan

2.    Introduce light wells and courtyards to bring in daylight into deep plans

3.    Size windows appropriately (often 20-30% of wall area for most spaces)

4.    Position windows centrally in space / on the wall

5.    Provide multiple windows, ensure they enable future division / flexible use of the space

6.    Position balconies to not overhang the only or main window(in housing)

7.    Consider colour of the space: light colours reflect daylight

8.    Provide taller windows on lower floors (enabled by higher floor to ceiling heights) 

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