By Barbara Szybinska Matusiak, Professor, Department of Architectural Design, Form and Colour Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Windows create many problems, especially in ZE-buildings, said a nano-technology guru during the discussion with me some weeks ago, so why do we still construct traditional windows? View? Light? Air? All those elements can be delivered without windows, he claimed. There are already good solutions for lighting and ventilation without using windows, he said. Regarding view outdoors the potential is even higher. The view […]
by Christoph Reinhart, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
The Daylighting Handbook I is the first volume in a series of upcoming books on daylighting and other sustainable building design concepts. The book is organized into two parts, Fundamentals and Designing with the Sun. Fundamentals serves as a general introduction to daylighting (chapter 2), its implementation and its daily and seasonal availability (chapter 3). It also explains how light helps us to perceive the world around us and to maintain our circadian […]
by Per Arnold Andersen, VELUX Group
Daylight is indispensable for the sustainable renewal of our cities. But how do we convince politicians, investors and citizens of its advantages? What means of communication do we need to convey our experience of daylight to others? And how is daylighting design likely to change in the future?
These themes and questions have been discussed in a conversation between Francesco Anselmo, Arfon Davies and Florence Lam from the engineering firm, Arup and the editorial team of […]
By Jakob Schoof, Photography by Torben Eskerod
Daylight should always be considered when converting buildings. How can an approach of this kind be systematised? What new potential and synergies are created when we make daylight our starting point for the redevelopment of a building or district? A team of Danish architects has answered these questions in the recently published study ‘Hvad med Dagslys?’ (What about Daylight?).
The light of the sun contributes to human well-being and is an important source of energy […]
by Francesco Anselmo and John Mardaljevic
Astronomers and scientists have told us for some considerable time about the angle of the Earth’s axis to the sun, the direction and speed of rotation of our planet, the characteristic irregular distribution of land masses and oceans that defines our geographic knowledge.
Sixty years of space exploration and the images sent by a constantly increasing number of artificial satellites (there are more than 3,000 currently in orbit around the Earth) have strongly ingrained in our […]
by Michael Pawlyn
Most people now accept the case for sustainability and many wonder how the debate will move forward over the next few decades. Some commentators have asserted that biomimicry will be one of the main design tools that facilitate the shift from the industrial age to the ecological age of mankind. This rapidly emerging discipline draws on a sourcebook of solutions that have benefitted from a 3.8 billion year research and development period.
In this talk Michael Pawlyn will describe […]
by David Strong
An increasing body of evidence confirms the importance of daylight on human health, wellbeing, happiness and productivity in the workplace. This paper presents the findings of a comprehensive worldwide review of the research evidence associated with the importance of the social and economic contributions of glazed areas to sustainability in the built environment.
Of particular importance are the findings from the healthcare and education sectors, together with emerging evidence regarding the importance of daylight in retail buildings and in […]
