DAYLIGHT SYMPOSIUM 2015
2 SEPTEMBER 2015
MORNING SESSION
WELCOME
by Michael K. Rasmussen and Claus Grube

Official opening by Michael K. Rasmussen – VELUX Group and Claus Grube – Ambassador of Denmark for the United Kingdom, of the 6th VELUX Daylight Symposium “Daylight as a driver of change” that took place in London on 2-3 September 2015.


INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT 2015
by John Dudley

The year 2015 has been declared the International Year of Light by the United Nations General Assembly, and activities are underway worldwide in over hundreds of countries and reaching millions of people. The science and technology of light have revolutionized medicine, have opened up international communication, and are central to linking the cultural, economic and political aspects of the world. The International Year of Light aims to raise public and international political awareness of the importance of light for the future of global society and this introductory address will review achievements to date and describe planned legacy actions for the future.

John Dudley is a Professor of Physics working at the CNRS Research Institute FEMTO-ST in Besancon, France. His research covers broad areas of optical science and he has published over 500 contributions in journals & conference proceedings, and delivered over 120 invited talks at major conferences. He regularly speaks on topics including: his own research; current research trends in photonics; extreme events in nature; public outreach & education; career development. He has won numerous awards and fellowships, including the Médaille d’Argent of the national French research agency CNRS, the SPIE President’s Award and the Hopkins Leadership Award of the Optical Society OSA. He served as the President of the European Physical Society for a two year term from April 2013-March 2015. In 2009, he initiated the International Year of Light & Light-based Technologies 2015 and currently serves as Chair of its international Steering Committee.


DAYLIGHT AS A DRIVE FOR CHANGE
by Caroline Buckingham

Caroline Buckingham spoke about design solutions that interrogate outdated presumptions using examples of case studies from both new build and refurbishment projects to illustrate the impact of daylight in the learning environment. She also discussed design team collaboration and the increased environmental benefits.

Caroline Buckingham is an owner and Board Director of HLM and heads up education in the UK and Internationally. She provides high level consultation as well as personal input throughout projects. Caroline is Chair of the RIBA Large Practice Group, a RIBA Role Model and a member of the UK think tank Policy Exchange. Her crucial role in leading teams through productive and enjoyable consultation resulted in HLM being given a Special Award in the Sunday Times, Small Best Companies List for ‘Best for Engaging with Schools’. HLM is widely recognised as one of the leading education practices in the UK, having delivered over 620 early years places, 10,500 primary school places, 31,500 secondary school places and 21,000 college and university places.


DAYLIGHT AND ARCHITECTURE
by David Nelson

David Nelson shares design responsibility for all Foster + Partners’ projects as joint Head of Design. He joined Foster Associates in 1976, working on a number of important early projects including the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and the Hammersmith Centre. In 1979 he joined the team working on the design of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, eventually sharing design responsibility for the project. He was made a Director of Foster Associates in 1984. He returned to London in 1986 and became the director responsible for a wide range of projects, including the American Air Museum at Duxford, Century Tower in Tokyo and projects in Asia, Europe, Australia and the USA.

Since becoming a Partner in 1991, he has worked on many projects including the Reichstag, New German Parliament in Berlin. Recent projects include the Petronas University of Technology in Malaysia, Stanford University Laboratories in California, the McLaren Technology Centre and Production Centre in Woking, the new Supreme Court in Singapore, the Florence High-speed Railway Station, an office tower and mixed-use development in Sydney, Australia, Central Market and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and the Apple Campus in California. David Nelson was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the RIBA in 2002.


ARCHITECTURE FOR WELLBEING AND HEALTH
by Koen Steemers

The design of our built environment affects our health and well-being, and can have long-term implications on quality of life. The publication of “Nudge: Improving health, wealth and happiness” in 2008 was influential in revealing that behaviour can be strongly influenced by context (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). People can be nudged in to making better decisions in largely automatic, non-coercive and simple ways, through changing what Thaler and Sunstein refer to as “choice architecture”. Can architecture create choice architecture? The role that architecture can play is evident: “Design-led interventions can make better choices easier or constrain behaviours by making certain actions more difficult” (King, Thompson, & Darzi, 2014).

The purpose of this review is to outline the definition(s) of health and well-being, and to determine the potential implications and opportunities for housing design. The emphasis will be on the presence of well-being rather than the absence of ill-health. As a result, the essay acknowledges the challenges and strategies of avoiding negative physical health-related considerations associated with for example poor indoor environmental quality. However, the focus is instead on supporting positive mental well-being which in turn has implications for physiological health. There is an established body of expertise related to the study of physical health with increasing quantitative evidence, but research of well-being in the built environment is a relatively recent and largely qualitative area of investigation that is nevertheless beginning to reveal consistent and widely accepted findings. These findings are interpreted here in terms of architectural design.

This presentation suggests that it is more important to incorporate a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative health considerations rather than to focus on single, narrowly defined criteria. Such ‘silo thinking’ tends not to aid good design (perfectionism can be crippling) and often different criteria are in tension. An alternative approach is to determine ‘good enough’ strategies which increase diversity and adaptability, and that are user-centred. This is not to deny the potentially chronic health impacts of poor indoor environmental quality on certain sectors of the population (i.e. large impact for a small population), but rather to balance and complement this with strategies to improve well-being for the wider population (i.e. modest improvement for a large population).

The structure of this presentation is divided into three sections. The first section reviews the spatially relevant definitions of well-being and their relationships to health. The second section, draws on research to define the implications and opportunities for architecture. Finally, the last section will provide rules of thumb and architectural propositions that exemplify the findings.

Koen Steemers; an architectural and built environment academic with an international profile, Professor Steemers was recently named in BD’s inaugural list of the “50 most influential people in UK sustainability”, including others such as James Lovelock and Jonathan Porrit. He studied Architecture at the University of Bath and subsequently joined Energy Conscious Design (now ECD Partnership, London), a pioneering architectural practice. His PhD work at the University of Cambridge developed new insights in to the links between urban design and environmental performance which generated a series of funded research projects and drew the attention of academics and practitioners. He was invited to act as consultant, notably to the Richard Rogers Partnership on numerous projects, and became a Director of Cambridge Architectural Research Limited in 1991. Koen was appointed Head of Department in 2008 after five years as Director of the Martin Centre and Head of Research for the Department.

Koen is currently leading a team of a dozen researchers undertaking studies into visual perception, occupant behaviour and environmental performance of architectural and urban space. He coordinates a Masters degree, regularly supervises ca. ten PhD students and has produced over 170 publications, including 10 books. Koen is a registered architect and Director of CH+W Design; environmental design consultant (Director of CAR Ltd); consultant to UN-HABITAT; past President of PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture international association); Guest Professor at Chongqing University, China and Kyung Hee University, Korea.


DESIGNING FOR ACCESS TO NATURE IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
by Nick Baker

The popular aphorism that “nature is good for you” is explored by reviewing a number of studies measuring the impact of nature, and its deprivation, on subjects. These range from wellbeing in dementia patients to the development of cognitive and motor skills in pre-school children. With sufficient evidence that access to nature is indeed good for you, and providing a pragmatic (if not rigorously scientific) definition of nature, the paper moves on to identify the key design parameters that have impact on our access to nature.

The work proposes a formal model that consists of zones, links and qualities. Zones can be inside, edge, close or distant, these corresponding to the building interior, the building envelope, the immediate surroundings, and the distant landscape. Between these zones are links that are either access or sensory. All the above zones and links can be ascribed qualities. Whilst there is too little data at present to propose a quantitative calibration, the model may be useful to a designer for ordering and balancing various conflicting design decisions.

Finally, other issues relating to nature are discussed. These include attracting wildlife into the close zone, and facilitating gardening and pet-keeping. In conclusion, although many of these nature-access features may already be a part of good residential design, a formal model with a view to quasiquantification, could make an important contribution to providing for health and well-being in residential development.

Nick Baker qualified in physics, and after a brief period working in medical physics, he moved to building science as a teacher, researcher and consultant. He has recently retired from University of Cambridge Department of Architecture, where he was involved with several EU funded research projects, in the fields of energy, daylight, natural ventilation and comfort, on which he has published many papers. He has written several books, including The Handbook of Sustainable Refurbishment, and contributed to others on comfort and sustainability. His current interest, developed from his work on thermal comfort, has been on behavioural responses to environmental stimuli relating to natural climate and landscape.


DAYLIGHT EXPOSURE IN RELATION TO SLEEP, WAKEFULNESS AND HEALTH
by Arne Lowden

It has been hypothesised that daylight exposure might be essential for the regulation of circadian rhythms and sleep/wake patterns. A lower dosage of natural daylight could possibly be related to sleep problems, elevate sleepiness and adaptation to working life. To further test this, the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) was analysed for the year of 2012 since it included questions both on light exposure and sleep. The database included 7324 workers, most being females (55.8%) with a mean age of 50.1 years (ranging from 24-73 years).

In connection to work days the reported outdoor exposure was one hour or less among 55.3% of the indoor workers, exposure lengths being longer among males and increasing by age. Exposures also increased on free days, only 12.9% were exposed to one hour or less daylight. At work, 86.5 % of the workers reported that they mostly worked within 5 metres from a window. Those having problems with lowered mood, fatigue and lack of energy during the autumn and winter period amounted to 43.1%. Of these, 20.9% reported to feel severe or marked problems. In a multiple regression analysis, controlling for age, sex and education, it was found that sleep problems were clearly related (p<0.001) to the amount of light exposure in connection to work (and leisure). The relationship was most pronounced for difficulties to initiate sleep, difficulties to wake up, repeated awakenings during sleep and not being restored by sleep. Similar associations (p<0.001) with mental and physical exhaustion were found. A longer distance to windows at work generated the same linear increase of sleep problems. Self-reported problems involving snoring or apnéa were not significantly related to light exposure. Light exposure on workdays was associated with an earlier onset of sleep (p<0.001) as well as an earlier rise time (p<0.001) but sleep length being longer only with a moderate intake of daylight exposure (30 min – 2 hours). Self-rated health was particularly lowered among the group with low daily exposures (<30 min). Although significance levels were high, the importance of daylight exposure to explain sleep problems are still marginal since the explained variance ranged from 2.5-5.5%. But sub groups in working life with a chronic absence of natural daylight are likely exposed to increased health risks. In summary, data clearly indicates that lowered exposure to natural daylight among in-door workers negatively affects sleep, possible daytime functioning and health perceptions.

Arne Lowden is an Associate Professor at the Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University. His research profile is “circadian rhythms, light and health” and having sleep as a major interest, Arne is currently a certified sleep specialist in Sweden. He has recently devoted time to study effects in sleep and recovery from impact of natural daylight but also the effects of bright light in light rooms, light inschools, lighting in windowless rooms and driving behaviour at night. Arne has on-going collaborations with several leading light researchers and finds the dramatic natural light changes across seasons in Scandinavia and the influence of 24/7 society of particular interest to further study. He is a member of the board of the Working Time Society.


BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LIGHT AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR HOUSING DESIGN AND MODERN DAILY LIVING
by Victoria L. Revell

When we enter a house, as a resident, visitor or potential buyer, one of the first things that we notice is whether or not it is bright and well lit. If we are looking to buy a house, factors we will consider will be the direction the house faces, what time of day the house will be bathed in sunshine, the colours the walls are painted and if they reflect light, and the number and size of the windows. But why is it that light is so important to our living environment? The obvious answer is that light is critical for us being able to see, but what is less well appreciated is that it also profoundly affects our physiology and behaviour, having a crucial impact on our health and wellbeing. This article will consider these non-visual effects of light and how this can inform the architecture and design of an optimal healthy home.

Light has profound biological effects on human physiology and behaviour in addition to being essential for vision. These effects of light can be exploited for optimal health and well-being by synchronising the circadian clock and associated rhythmic events within the body, ensuring sleep of good quality and duration, and promoting a wake period with a high level of alertness, mood and performance. Houses can be designed to create the optimal light/dark cycle using both natural environmental and artificial light as well as methods of minimising or eliminating light entirely. In the future, the design of buildings for both work and home could benefit from considering and implementing features that will be beneficial for human health.

Dr Victoria Revell, BSc (Hons) PhD, Senior Project Manager at Surrey Clinical Research Centre, University of Surrey has over 12 years’ experience in human circadian rhythms research. Her research has primarily focused on the non-visual effects of light on physiology, behaviour, the circadian clock and sleep patterns including assessing the impact of aging on these responses. Victoria graduated in Biology from Imperial College London in 2000 and completed a PhD in Human Circadian Physiology and Behaviour at the University of Surrey in 2004. She completed post-doctoral positions at Rush University Medical Center Chicago, The University of Manchester and the University of Surrey. Victoria has worked as a project manager at the Surrey Clinical Research Centre since 2010 where she has been involved in a diverse array of studies including vaccines, sleep, surgery and metabolism. Victoria is author of more than 25 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, has presented at several international conferences and is on the Board of Directors for the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms.


DAYLIGHT FOR PEOPLE WITH SIGHT LOSS
by Paul Littlefair

It has been estimated that around 3% of the population have sight loss that affects their everyday life. Despite this, current daylighting design guides rarely mention people with sight loss. Daylight has a number of advantages for partially sighted people. In their homes, it can give much higher illuminances than domestic electric lighting. This can help in the performance of detailed visual tasks. Compared to electric task lighting, daylight is often more comfortable because it is more diffused and lights a wider area, avoiding uncomfortable contrasts between the task and its background. Daylight has excellent colour rendering and a high colour gamut, which means that objects appear in their vivid, true colours.

The high illuminances from daylight, coupled with its diurnal variation, can help to maintain the body’s circadian rhythms of sleep and alertness. They stop the body producing melatonin, a hormone that causes sleepiness, and stimulate the production of serotonin, which can reduce the symptoms of depression. Daylight contains more blue light, which is particularly effective at resetting the body’s clock. For those with visual impairment, high illuminances are particularly needed, because their eyes are less effective at sending the required signals to the pineal gland, which controls these hormones.

The variation of daylight and sunlight also adds interest to the visual environment. Windows provide contact with the outside, which is particularly valued by those with sight loss. Even those with only the basic ability to resolve light and dark can detect changes in the weather and movement of the sun. Windows also give non-visual cues because changing conditions outside alter the acoustic and thermal environment. The presence of a window, especially in circulation areas, can help people orient themselves within a room or building.

However, daylight, and especially sunlight, can be a source of glare. This is a particular problem for those with certain kinds of sight loss such as cataracts. Blinds or curtains can control glare; ideally the shading device should admit a comfortable level of diffuse light while cutting out the glare source. Blinds should be better at this than curtains, although it is not clear what the optimum type of blind is. Vertical louvre blinds require frequent adjustment during the day as the sun moves round. Horizontal venetian blinds require less adjustment, but need to be kept almost shut to control low angle sun. Contrast between the very bright areas near a window and dark, gloomy parts of the interior can also be uncomfortable or disabling.

However in their homes, partially sighted people may appreciate some spatial variation in the amount of light provided; they can take difficult visual tasks to the window, or relax in the more subdued areas of the room. Even during the day, electric lighting may be required as well as daylight, so that partially sighted people can have extra light when they need it. Different people have different requirements for lighting, and good lighting control enables them to tailor supplementary lighting to their own individual needs and the time of day. This presentation describes research carried out for Thomas Pocklington Trust, a UK national charity dedicated to delivering positive change for people affected by sight loss. The Trust is publishing a design guide on daylighting in the homes of people with sight loss.

Paul Littlefair, MA PhD CEng MCIBSE MSLL leads the lighting team at BRE, the UK’s foremost independent construction research and consultancy organization. He has 35 years’ experience in daylight. His specialist interests include daylight availability, daylight calculations, obstructions and their effects on daylight in the urban environment, use of lighting controls, daylight redirecting systems, solar shading, and solar dazzle reflected from buildings. His PhD was for a thesis entitled ‘Daylighting design and energy conservation’. He has published over 100 books and papers on daylight and related issues.


ARCHITECTURE FOR THE SENSES
by Christina Augustesen

How can we design buildings that stimulate our senses, follow our human needs and allow us to live in balance with nature? Buildings, which combine the use of daylight and artificial light and use the “double dynamic” potential of controlling daylight and artificial light, might stimulate our senses and human needs, as well as enhance the feeling of living in balance with nature. The use of daylight and electrical light in the new Novo Nordisk Headquarter is an amazing example of how proportions, materials and the use of daylight in combination with artificial light creates an architectonic setting, which stimulates the people working in and visiting the buildings.

The use of daylight in the buildings is stimulating the senses of the employees and creates a connection between a working situation and the nature around. Furthermore, the design of the skylights provides a strong identity for each of the buildings. The electrical light supports the daylight and the concept behind the lighting control and ensures an exciting environment during the daytime, throughout the evening and night. The presentation will demonstrate how the architectural concept and the lighting strategy serve as a main concept and establish a hierarchy between daylight and the varying artificial lighting elements. It Includes an analyses of the colours of the daylight and artificial light and how these elements are controlled in a poetic way – and at the same time provide a functional environment for the employees at Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk Building NN2, offers a spectacular sculptural atrium, offices, meeting rooms, a canteen, and a diversity of ancillary spaces. This building’s focal point is its atrium, which visually and physically connects the four stories and manifold functions. The atrium has been designed with 50 skylight baffles that poetically disperse daylight into the space and the building’s core. The design and direction of the skylight baffles influence the play of light and shadow taking place in the building throughout the day and across the year. Daylighting’s dynamic behavior juxtaposed with the design of the electric lighting’s intensity, direction, and colour temperature help to create the appearance of changing ‘ornamentation’ in the skylight baffles, as well as in the atrium and its adjacent spaces.

Christina Augustesen is an architect and lighting designer, and holds a Master in Architecture from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation (KADK), Denmark and a master in Light and Lighting from Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, UK. Christina has been working in the field of architectural lighting for more than ten years, in Denmark as well as internationally. Christina works with a holistic approach to lighting design, so that daylight and artificial lighting are embedded into sustainable solutions – integrating spatial, visual, aesthetic and technical aspects. She has a keen interest in artistic lighting installations and the study of visual perception, both of which play a key role in her on-going work. Christina has recently, in cooperation with Henning Larsen Architects, designed the lighting for Novo Nordisk new head quarter, DK, which was awarded the Danish Lighting Award 2014. Christina is a guest lecturer for Architectural Lighting at Copenhagen School of Architecture (KADK) and a member of TANTEIDAN and IALD.


ARCHITECTURE WITH DAYLIGHT - ENERGY VS HEALTH
by Arne Hulsmann, Andres Lichtplanung

The knowledge about the positive aspects of daylight has increased within the last few years. These aspects are divided into health effects and economical effects. Healthwise – the hormonal processes are controlled by (day-)light and the metabolism is regulated through it. Without daylight all these processes would have to be activated by artificial light.

Concerning energy and energy saving, the German building culture stands in its own way. It is difficult that daylight is not taken into ‘hostage’ by the energy debate. There is no denying that complacency cannot be discussed only by ways of W/qm, °C, humidity, CO2 concentration or annual balance sheets.

There is no product termed “daylight” which can be put on the market. If it would exist, then daylight would have a completely different (or even a) lobby. And what does all that mean to architecture? A practical example: A daylight plan had to be developed for a switch room in West-Germany. Goal of design was: In rare daylight months an illumination of 1000lx for at least 2h is to be achieved, exclusively through daylight. And this in bad weather days as well. To avoid glare at the workplace, the solar access in the switch room is forbidden. For this reason the desired illumination is to be achieved solely through diffuse light. A dimming of the daylight system is desired. The free areas in the roof, where a daylight system is possible, were defined with the architect. Subsequently, on the basis of data from the DWD, the available amount of daylight for each season was determined and with it the resulting daylight ratio. The first measurements showed that a daylight ratio of about 5% realized the desired daylight supply. In the following planning process, different daylight systems were chosen and optimized for the present application. By means of simulations, different geometries were analysed and by using comprehensive model studies these were presented to the principal for selection. After the decision of the principal for one daylight system was taken, an artificial light concept, suitable to the needs of the workplace was developed, which was also developed and optimized in the model.

This case study highlights the need for a holistic design process. The wellbeing at the workplace can be raised dramatically, and the use of artificial light reduced, through an integrative design approach. The view from the workplace to the outside is part of the ‘architectural’ design process – even when we work as lighting designers – just as much as daylight input and glare shield are. Daylight is architecture is daylight is architecture is…

Arne Hülsmann is a lighting designer and partner at Andres Lichtplanung in Hamburg, Germany. He studied architecture in Münster, Germany and Havana, Cuba and received his Master in Arts of Architecture from the University of Applied Sciences in Münster in 2003. During his studies he developed a strong interest in light and its function in architecture and decided to delve deeper into the topic after his degree. Arne joined Andres Lichtplanung in 2003 and specialized in Model- Building, Daylighting-Case-Studies and Artificial Lighting Design. Arne led many projects from design to realisation including airports, museums, and schools. In 2014 he became a partner at Andres Lichtplanung. Since 2013, Arne is also an assistant lecturer at the Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hildesheim (HAWK) and at the University of Applied Sciences in Münster (msa).


Q&A
with Koen Steemers, Nick Baker, Arne Lowden, Victoria L. Revell, Paul Littlefair, Christina Augustesen and Arne Hülsmann


AFTERNOON SESSION
FIRST DO NO HARM: PRACTICING LIGHTING DESIGN OR MEDICINE... WITHOUT A LICENSE?
by Deborah Burnett

The scientific data is conclusive in that exposure to daylight and electrical ambient light contribute to human health, generic expression, and hormonal signaling. As such, established scientific research has provided the lighting industry and designers with expanding practice models, commonly referred to as WELLNESS or Human Centric Lighting. Unfortunately this new business and practice model runs the risk of infringing on behavioral and clinical responsibility, therefore, without standardized practice guidelines or mandated specifier proficiencies in basic circadian system physiology, the science can easily be misinterpreted and thus deliver harmful unintended consequences. As such, design practitioners and manufactures alike, may soon face the very real potential for liability litigation. Attendees in this session:

• Investigated differing interpretations of research findings and learn how to apply the data from a “first do no harm” perspective
• Evaluated 2 differing wellness focused practice guidelines for delivering light beyond glare and visual acuity requirements; do they work or simply open the door for delivering unintended occupant harm?
• Explored how initial project assessment considerations such as occupant average age, prior light history, and lifestyle activity status will become a valuable information piece in order to correctly specify lighting deemed appropriate for mitigating negative impacts and benignly delivering health and wellness benefit.
• Investigated glare from a physiological perspective and learn how to evaluate light sources and luminaire optics to limit potential negative health and visual acuity impacts.
• Discovered suggested intake PROGRAMMING considerations necessary to prioritize a daylight / tuneable SSL lighting specification which limits designer liability and responsibility for negative occupant health consequences

Deborah Burnett is an internationally recognized registered interior designer, color authority, licensed general contractor, keynote presenter and former National TV personality. She is a leading authority in the practice of Epigenetic Design targeting the connection between human health and built environmental light. A past national spokesperson for Sylvania Lighting, she serves as a national spokesperson for the American Society of Interior Designers. An accomplished journalist, her interviews and articles appear in US newspapers and popular magazines including the Washington Times, Health, AARP, and Readers Digest. Her evidence based light & health articles appear internationally in Professional Lighting Design, Mondo Arc, Architectural SSL, Disano, Lume, and Bridge for Design. Most recently, Burnett was retained as the lead author for developing a built environmental WELLNESS STANDARD designed to promote occupant nighttime sleep and reduced daytime fatigue through epigenetic design interventions.


PROGRAMMING FOR PATIENTS´ NEEDS
by Naja Lynge Rasmussen

The presentation has two parts., The first will focus on the result of an anthropological study of 4 months, which ran from August to November 2014 and the second on how the findings influenced and are used in the analysis and program of a new mother-child hospital. The study aimed at understanding the user experience and took place at Rigshospitalet at Juliane Marie Center, the mother-child center of the hospital, as a part of a feasibility study of a new mother-child hospital. We wanted to focus on the user experience as a part of the feasibility study, which on other tracks also uncovers medical professional and engineering aspects of a future Juliane Marie Center.

The process consisted of thorough research and analysis followed by phases in which the vision, design principles and solutions were developed. The outcome was five bearing design principles of user experience. The vision is the result of collaboration between the Juliane Marie Centre, more than 60 users and a consulting company. The construction of a new hospital provides a unique opportunity to create a significantly better user experience than is possible within Juliane Marie Centre’s existing framework. Our ambition is to create the world’s best hospital for treatment of children and families – nothing less. The four main phases of the study were: 1. Research 2. Analysis 3. Vision and design principles 4. Solution Examples.

Naja Lynge Rasmussen is a Danish architect who since graduation from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture in Copenhagen has worked to create architecture based on user needs. The last seven years as part of the team on Rigshospitalet’s mega-projects: The North Wing, 55,000 m2 hospital under construction and lately the feasibility study for a hospital for women giving birth, children and young people, about 50,000 m2. Rigshospitalet is situated in Copenhagen and is Denmark´s leading university hospital for patients needing highly specialised treatment.


DAYLIGHT FACTORS - OR SOLAR ARCHITECTURE
by Carlo Volf

In the beginning of the 20th century, light served as a preventive and healing element in architecture. However, with the prevalence of penicillin in the 1940´s, attention was drawn towards a more medical treatment rather than prevention through architecture. In my doctoral dissertation “Light, Architecture and Health” at Aarhus School of Architecture 2013, I put renewed emphasis and focus upon light and architecture and their shared significance to health and argued for a better balance between light and darkness. The conclusion is that it is possible to base the architecture on a healthier light if the architecture is partly planned deliberately according to the sun and to the East, South, West and North, and partly in relation to the body’s circadian rhythm.

Forgotten Knowledge and the Worship of the Sun during Modernism Thanks to a thorough job, first revealing a collection of ‘forgotten knowledge’ based on historical sources and field studies of modernist buildings, which, in their architecture, were built upon health-related intentions, I will discuss the knowledge we have about light and health today, and argue that modernism and its strategy for optimizing the sun no longer seems to work. The same goes for modern glass architecture which unbridled opens up towards the sunlight using ‘unhealthy’ solar protective glass. It is about finding a balance between exposure to and protection from the light of the sun.

The Sunlight and the Circadian Rhythm of the Body.

This balance will exemplify through practical light experiments with the geographical orientation, the Danish weather and the body’s circadian rhythm. Through new experimental setups and the development of a new method of representation, “Simultaneous Time-lapse Photography”, he portrayed and maintain differences in light over time and place. This applies both in terms of the geographical orientation and the annual differences, at summer solstice, equinox and winter solstice, respectively. Based on field studies and studies of light, he suggested an overall architectural approach to a healthier light, a strategy which responds the asymmetrical light of the sun by being – in itself – asymmetrical. Be it in the form of asymmetrical building shapes, facades, apertures or artificial lighting. Two case studies. The accumulated knowledge about light, architecture and health is used and applied in an actual hospital construction project in Denmark:

1) The New Herlev Hospital: A consortium consisting of, among others Henning Larsen Architects and Friis & Moltke Architects won the competition in 2011 – based on two symmetrical, round buildings with glass facades designed for optimizing the daylight, the intake of daylight is balanced in an asymmetrical architecture.

2) The State Hospital: The results of an ongoing research project at the Psychiatric Center 0 in Copenhagen, where the asymmetrical sunlight and its effect on depression and sleep are studied and discussed. Through these case-studies, I will present knowledge about sunlight and health implemented in practice and discuss how this way of thinking light and health can be implemented in future architecture and influence our way of working with light in the future.

Carlo Volf is an architect working in the field of hospital architecture. He works with a scientific and interdisciplinary research based approach and currently contributes with new knowledge and new research based design methods in the planning of hospitals. After finishing his Ph.D. dissertation “Light, Architecture and Health – a Method” in 2013, he has been focusing on sunlight and solar architecture. Carlo Volf has been nominated in the INDEX Award with a case in the category Design to improve life and currently he is working on a project at The State Hospital in Copenhagen. Carlo Volf is appointed censor at Aarhus School of Architecture and at The Royal Academy of Architecture and Design and a member of the VELUX Denmark Daylight Jury.


SUNLIGHT AND MENTAL WELLBEING
by Lynette B. Robertson

This research set out to examine if access to sunlight in the home is a factor contributing to the psychological health and wellbeing of residents of social housing in Glasgow. A pilot study was undertaken in October 2012, involving a survey of 40 residents living in flats of four tower blocks in the Shawbridge area of Glasgow (24 male, 16 female). Psychological health and wellbeing was assessed using two measures: (i) WEMWBS – the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale; Mental wellbeing; and (ii) GHQ-12 – the General Health Questionnaire; Psychological distress. Sunlight received indoors was modelled using Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) software (annual average, m2 hr/yr). Separate calculations were made for each room and the level of occlusion from curtains and blinds was taken into account (recorded at the time of survey). Analyses were undertaken for (i) the sample as a whole (n = 40); (ii) a sub-sample of individuals who typically spent 2 hours or more in their living room each day (n = 18). Exploratory analysis indicated that the living room was the room that was used most during daylight hours. Mental wellbeing scores ranged from 21-70 with a mean of 49 (SD = 12.2). Psychological distress scores ranged from 0-12 with a median of 2.5 (IQR= 5). There was no significant differences in average scores between men and women. Modelled total sunlight for each dwelling (with occlusion from curtains and blinds included) ranged from 0 to 6703 m2 hr/yr, with a mean of 2500 m2 hr/yr (SD = 1655). For the living room values ranged from 0 to 4567 m2 hr/yr, mean = 1740 m2 hr/ yr (SD = 1295). Mental wellbeing was found to be positively associated with living room modelled sunlight (r = .357, p < 0.05), but after controlling for key confounding variables, sunlight was not a significant predictor of mental wellbeing. No significant association was found between sunlight and the psychological distress measure. For the sub-sample of individuals who typically spent 2 hours or more in their living room each day, mental wellbeing was positively associated with living room sunlight (r = .733, p = 0.001), and also for the flat as a whole (r = .553, p = 0.017). There was no significant associations between sunlight and level of psychological distress. Further analysis of the data is currently in progress, including regression analyses for the sub-sample; use of daylight data for the month of October only; relationships with environmental monitoring data (temperature, humidity, air quality); and exploration of sample characteristics in relation to curtain/blind habits.

Lynette Robertson is a research scientist based in the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU) within Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. Following a PhD in Geoscience from Edinburgh University in 2005, she spent a number of years as a data scientist, and subsequently an atmospheric dispersion modeler at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Since 2010 she has worked in environmental and architectural design research with a focus on human health and wellbeing, and in particular the health benefits of contact with nature and urban green spaces. Prior to joining MEARU in September 2014, Lynette worked as a Research Associate and Research Fellow on a number of large collaborative research projects at OPENspace Research Centre at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. A passionate advocate of urban greening and growing, alongside her academic research, Lynette also works to promote green infrastructure technologies in Scotland through contributions to the work of the Scottish Green Infrastructure Forum (SGIF), and as an independent urban greening consultant.


UNCHARTERED TERRITORY: DAYLIGHT PERFORMANCE AND OCCUPANT BEHAVIOUR IN CLASSROOMS
by Nafsika Christa Drosou

Evidence on how the luminous environment is experienced by occupants is the subject of this work. The aim is to contribute to improved school design by addressing the gap in the designers’ and policy makers’ understanding of how building occupants perceive daylight; how they respond to daylight performance values; and how their needs and actions shape the operational daylight performance of classrooms. Exploring the above in a live learning environment is hampered by difficulties involving the collection of subjective data from children (and) access for continuously monitoring daylight performance and occupant interaction with the building design and its systems.

The need for evidence is all the more pressing for two reasons. The first relates to the 2013 UK schools daylight guidelines, introduced by the Education Funding Agency through the Priority Schools Building Programme. The use of climate based daylight modeling metrics to deliver the government’s new standards instead of the widely used daylight factor has ignited a heated debate, concerning the adequacy of existing metrics and benchmarks to guide designers toward the development of designs that translate into well daylit schools. The second reason involves the changing visual needs of classrooms due to the increasing reliance of modern teaching methods on visual display technologies, such as smart whiteboards and tablets.

A mixed method approach is described in order to establish the relationship between daylight levels and occupant behaviour in the ‘live’ environment of a classroom used as a case study. The quantification (and mapping) of the luminous environment is achieved by means of High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging: a method followed in order to record luminance data on an image that closely resembles what is seen by the human eye. Additionally, HDR imaging enables non-intrusive continuous monitoring for extended periods of time (e.g. a month or longer) and allows recording of the interaction of occupants with controls such as electric lights and blinds, as required to satisfy their visual needs.

The qualitative side of the approach employs the Grounded Theory Method (GTM); a systematic procedure used as a tool to generate theory when a process, action or interaction is not adequately explained by existing theories. In accordance with the emerging research design, a classification of GTM, theory emerges from the data collected and not from preset categories. Data is sourced by means of questionnaires, focus groups and interviews involving students, teachers and school staff. This approach provides valuable information on the various tasks occupants perform in a modern classroom and the subsequent visual needs that arise. Furthermore, it explores the rationale behind observed actions and allows for the investigation of behavioral patterns that correspond to specific daylight design elements of the case study. Finally, the association of qualitative and quantitative data adds meaning to subjective occupant responses enabling the quantification of experienced daylight, while providing evidence of the real world daylight performance in occupied classrooms.

Nafsika Drosou is a second year PhD student in the School of Civil and Building Engineering of Loughborough University in the UK. With a background in Civil Engineering from the University of the Philippines, her professional experience includes working on housing projects of a real estate and development firm in Manila. In 2010 she completed an MSc in Low Carbon Building Design & Modelling at Loughborough University. She then joined Portsmouth University, School of Architecture, as a research assistant on SILCS (Strategies for Innovative Low Carbon Settlements), an EU Interreg IVC project. Returning to Loughborough University, she completed an MRes in Energy Demand Studies with a scholarship from the London-Loughborough EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Research in Energy Demand which also covers her PhD.


ARCHITECTURAL ATMOSPHERE IN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
by Stina Holm Jensen

The design of learning environments is a challenging, yet highly interesting field for many architects due to the complexity of factors affecting the creative process. Learning spaces are not merely an accommodating framework for students and teachers; the physical environment, if designed with consideration, can be one of the most influential factors for successful learning. In order to achieve spaces of high quality for students and teachers, the architect must be able to materialise the latest pedagogical and didactical theories in relation to the specific academic program for the school – taking into account cost constraints, building technological considerations and the conditions of the building site.

The design of learning spaces should support the applied methods of teaching in the best possible way. A number of factors influence our spatial perception, and as such, form part of the architectural process; e.g. spatial organization, materials and indoor climate. Especially daylight conditions in schools have been subject to extensive research over the years. In 1874 Robson stressed the importance of daylighting in classrooms in the book ‘School architecture: practical remarks on the planning, designing, building, and furnishing of schoolhouses’. In a Danish context, the school ‘Skolen ved Sundet’ from 1938, is an early example which reflects the belief that daylight supports the wellbeing of students. Today, access to daylight is a mandatory factor in school architecture, and much research has focused on how daylight affects human comfort and learning capabilities. The impact of daylight on the health, social interaction and learning achievements of students in indoor spaces, is well documented.

The present paper focuses on the implementation of this knowledge in architectural practices and the development of procedures for continuous assessment of quantitative and qualitative daylight performance throughout the design process. Further, the paper addresses recent research into the relationship between daylight design and the overall architectural atmosphere in learning environments and the importance of viewing daylight not as an isolated factor, but as part of a holistic approach. The point of departure for discussing this subject is a case study within a Norwegian context. The considered school building – Vestmyra School in Fauske – has demanding daylight requirements due to the location in the northern part of Norway. Simulation of the daylight conditions was used as an important tool in the development of spaces, which support the project specific learning principles. The case study exemplifies how the significance of daylight is taken into account in the design process, and forms the basis for discussing how procedures can be further developed to ensure a holistic approach to the architectural atmosphere in learning environments of the future.

Stina Holm Jensen is M.Sc. in Architectural design from Aalborg University in 2012 and works as an architect in AART Architects, Oslo. Her primary field of work is learning environments and, as such, she is currently engaged in the development of three school buildings in Norway. As part of the research team “AART Green” she works with sustainability as an integrated part of the design process, specializing in the role of daylight for the health and wellbeing of the people who inhabit our built environment.


Q&A
with Deborah Burnett, Naja Lynge, Carlo Volf, Lynette B. Robertson, Nafsika Christa Drosou and Stine Holm Jensen


ACCESS TO DAYLIGHT - GETTING PEOPLE OUTSIDE AND DAYLIGHT INSIDE
by Christoph Reinhart

The question of successfully providing daylight to people has two distinct sets of solutions: We can try to get more people outside or more daylight inside of buildings. Ideally, we follow both approaches synchronously. In order to do so requires integrated urban design approaches that holistically address questions of creating comfortable outdoor spaces, providing sufficient amenities to accomplish high walkability levels (people have to do something outside) and finally accomplishing sufficient access to daylight within buildings. Such daylighting oriented design ambitions naturally clash with other pressures that cities experience such as rising densities due to population growth, the desire to increase resource efficiency of buildings and economic expectations. This presentation draws on a series of inter-related projects at MIT’s Sustainable Design Lab which involve the development of an urban modeling platform for daylighting, outdoor comfort, human powered transportation, operational and embodied energy as well as the application on these modeling schemes to urban projects in Boston, Kuwait, Lisbon and Riyadh. The results will be presented in the context of where the opportunities and challenges for daylighting lie in a densifying world.

Christoph Reinhart is a building scientist and architectural educator working in the field of daylighting, sustainable building design and environmental modeling. At MIT he is leading the Sustainable Design Lab, an inter-disciplinary group with a grounding in architecture that develops design workflows, planning tools and metrics to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings and neighborhoods. Design tools originating from the group – such as DIVA, DAYSIM and umi – are used in practice and education in over 90 countries.


EXPERIENCING A DAYLIT SPACE
by Marilyne Andersen

To embed the diversity and variability of human needs as foundational elements of daylighting design and put human occupants back at the core of the building question, we need to reach out to fundamental discoveries from neuroscience, biology and other fields, which will bring new insights and a deeper understanding of how we interact with our environment. The multiplicity and variability of our needs regarding (day)light exposure have indeed been a topic of investigation for years now in photobiology and psychophysics, though have not yet penetrated the design realm as dynamic models of human response.

Humans need to be in an environment conducive to health and have physiological light exposure needs, whose time- and spectrum-dependent non-visual effects we only start to understand. On the other hand, users of a space often need to perform tasks for which comfortable visual conditions are needed, to which we respond with head and gaze dynamics that psychophysics can help us better recognize.

Finally, any attentive witness to a space seeks to enjoy its play of light and dark. Perception of daylight is the primary interpreter of the materiality and dynamism of any architectural space. As a result, while daylight as a subjectively perceived visual effect is actually very hard to use as a design factor, it is often what drives decisions. It is time to bring these exciting new research perspectives back into the design realm in a way it can interactively, dynamically and effectively fuel the creative design process: we have access to the essential ingredients of human-responsive design, now we need to cook. This paper will discuss ongoing research regarding the assessment of daylighting performance by considering three interpretations of “well-being” in a space: as a human inhabitant of a living space, as a user of a (work)space, and as a witness of a delightful space.

Marilyne Andersen is Professor of Sustainable Construction Technologies and Dean of the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at EPFL. She is also head of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID) whose research activities focus on building performance in the architectural context in general, and the use and optimization of daylight in buildings in particular. Before joining EPFL, she was Associate Professor at MIT, USA where she founded the MIT Daylighting Lab in 2004. She holds an MSc in Physics and specialized in daylighting through her PhD at LESO, EPFL and as a Visiting Scholar at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA.


CONSTRUCTION IN NATURAL LIGHT
by Lonn Combs

This paper explores the intersection of building envelopes and the evolution in cultural ideas about natural light, energy consumption and modulating the domestic environment through advances in passive and active technologies. By beginning with the examination of advances in building envelope performance and many tenants of high performance domestic design that are emerging from the passive house and net-zero movements this paper and the design research examples attempt to redirect the conversation back to the territory of aesthetics and the relationship of light (both artificial and natural), natural ventilation, and the ability to modulate the domestic environment seamlessly between passive heating and cooling strategies and natural ventilation.

By focusing on the aesthetic possibilities of natural ventilation and light, this paper proposes a hybridized model of design thinking. Addressing the functional and empirical performance of building envelopes is a priority that has often reduced the critical conversation around the quality of domestic space to an empirical ‘sum of the parts’ conversation. In many cases the performance of the passive envelope and the regenerative mechanical systems overshadow the discussion of the dynamics, of environmental, social, usage and physiological aesthetics. There is admittedly a large degree of economics underpinning this trend. In high performance domestic envelope design (at least in North America) there is a tendency for the higher performance natural light components (windows and skylights) to come at a prohibitive cost premium thus limiting the ability of the designer to move beyond basic environmental relationships to a more nuanced, site specific, life style oriented aesthetic agenda. Although this economic relationship is changing, few examples (designed or built) address the distribution of natural light and ventilation as a critical component of the design thinking and overall performance. The paper seeks to address this discrepancy as an opportunity of design. Conceptually all exterior surfaces of the building envelope should be an extension of the cultural ideas that drive the spatial organization, usage patterns and evolving attitudes about the domestic space therein. By utilizing advanced environmental and spatial modeling, this paper seeks to demonstrate the aesthetics of natural light in conjunction with the issues of passive heating and cooling in the high performance domestic envelope.

Three design examples are used as a basis of this argument and research. Each project is currently being developed within the architectural practice of EASTON+COMBS. This design research approaches the environmental aesthetic with a holistic methodology. A domestic building envelope must perform in 21st century design, but once considered at the scale of architecture, the spatial dynamic of the domestic environment must perform to equal degree. Curating natural light and ventilation in these environments is seen as critical to the success of the design agenda, however each design example seeks to employ a clear strategy of overall environmental performance as well as the buildings envelope performance. The design research proposes to demonstrate the performance efficiency and the quality of the design aesthetic though extensive energy modeling as well as the development of unique envelope strategies to be representationally demonstrated and documented.

Lonn Combs is an architect and co-founder of EASTON+COMBS, an award winning architectural practice with emerging international recognition in design excellence and building innovation through the convergence of material practice, integrated technological and environmental methods. Combs is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, receiving the prestigious ‘Rome Prize’ for Architecture in 2012. Lonn Combs is also Assistant Professor of Architecture and the Director of the Master of Architecture program at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. As Director, Combs leads the development of digital design, emerging fabrication, environmental analysis, and new materials within the curriculum, while also coordinating research based design studios with a commitment to architecture as a project of interdisciplinary knowledge and social engagement.


Q&A
Q&A with Christoph Reinhart, Marilyne Andersen and Lonn Combs


THE END OF NIGHT
by Paul Bogard

A starry night is one of nature’s most magical wonders. Yet in our artificially lit world, most of us no longer experience true darkness. In this talk based on his book THE END OF NIGHT, Paul Bogard seeks to restore our awareness of the spectacularly primal, wildly dark night sky and how it has influenced the human experience across everything from science to art. Using a blend of personal narrative, natural history, science, and astronomy, Bogard shares the importance of darkness–what we’ve lost, what we still have, and what we might regain and the simple ways we can reduce the brightness of our nights tonight.

Paul Bogard is author of The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light (Little, Brown, 2013) and editor of Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark (U of Nevada Press, 2008). A native Minnesotan, Paul has lived and taught in Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Reno, northern Wisconsin, and Winston-Salem. A graduate of Carleton College, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Nevada-Reno (PhD in Literature and Environment), Paul is now an assistant professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he teaches creative writing and environmental literature. Find him at paul-bogard.com.


3 SEPTEMBER 2015
MORNING SESSION
SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE, MODERN VS VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA
by Song Yehao

This paper shows how semi-transparent elements separate spaces; stimulate transition and interaction between natural and indoor environment in traditional East Asia architecture. By analyzing natural lighting in courtyard housing of North China, this article discusses the semiotic function of semi-transparency in stimulating hierarchy and order in Chinese residential architecture. The author believes that the fading of comprehensive indoor lightening is an important reason for the loss of East Asian identity in architecture. He introduces some recent works in China and Japan and presents how the architects adopt semi-transparent elements to reactivate the characteristic cultural sense of East Asia.

Song Yehao, Professor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University Beijing, and visiting professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark. He is a researcher, educator and practitioner with a long experience in sustainable architectural and urban developments in and outside China, a.o. worked in the architectural office of Thomas Herzog. His designs achieved several honours and awards. Author of numerous papers and books on sustainable design and his works pursuing neo-vernacular Chinese building design and urbanism. Yehao Songs works are focused on holistic design thinking and methods for sustainable architecture.


DAYLIGHT IN URBAN TEXTURE
by Natalia Sokol

Le Corbusier said that: “The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for light.” One might add that it is also the history of the struggle for a reasonable use of daylight. Good quality daylight is linked to visual performance and comfort of those who occupy the space. Daylight creates good conditions for seeing, supports task performance, fosters interaction and communication. It influences people’s health, stimulates moods and well-being. This paper reflects on the studies done in the area of daylight design methods and principles that can be applied for architecture and urban planning strategies. The paper discusses Polish building regulations in the context of daylight design. As well as the barriers for an application of new daylight design methods into urban planning and city regeneration processes. The results of the pilot study (the questionnaire) carried out among 50 participants with mixed backgrounds in architecture, urban planning and interior architecture show a growing demand for better daylight education and an urgent demand for a revision of the existing outdated lighting recommendations in Poland. The pilot conclusions also illustrate that daylight was considered as an element of natural resources needed in the sustainable approach into urban environment planning by the questionnaire contributors equipped with the basic daylight design knowledge. The urgent need of further case-specific studies was emphasized. As well as the belief that daylight and electric light projects should be integrated and a holistic approach to town light planning should be implemented.

This paper is a part of the PhD research on daylight design within the contemporary urban texture, which focuses on a growing role of daylight in creating more sustainable residential architecture. One of the aims of this research is to identify how daylight knowledge can help to reconsider contemporary urban planning in Poland, especially with reference to a growing number of residential areas. It discusses how daylight strategies may be implemented as design methods in architecture planning. The method may potentially offer new approaches towards the residential planning design frameworks. While discussing the role of daylight in residential buildings and areas, an emphasis is put not only on an energy optimization but also on the qualities related to inhabitants’ needs, preferences and behaviour patterns. Further questions asked are: what kind of daylight design methods could be applied in early phases of residential areas planning; what elements of daylight design strategies should be present in building regulations and what educational channels should be created to propagate daylight knowledge among professionals engaged in urban planning processes.

The final conclusions of the PhD thesis may illustrate that a role of daylight in urban planning is very complex, depending on the implemented filters of objectives, from social, cultural and psychological to energy optimization objectives. The author hopes to confirm that daylight studies are crucial in the early stages of residential urban planning especially while making decisions concerning urban density, buildings location.

Natalia Sokol is a PhD researcher at the Gdansk University of Technology, Poland at the Faculty of Architecture: Urban and Regional Planning Unit. In her research she explores a role of daylight design in the early stages of urban planning focusing on the residential areas. Since her graduation from the UCL MSc Light and Lighting course she has been promoting architectural lighting design through different areas of activity from commercial lighting projects, luminaire design through educational work. Before PhD studies she had been working as a lighting designer for a Swedish company and had helped to implement almost 40 lighting products on the market.


LIGHT IN GUNNAR ASPLUND´S PUBLIC LIBRARY
by Martin Schwartz

Until recently, makers of buildings had little choice but to respond directly to local daylight conditions in order to gather or control daylight. In regions where there are extreme daylight conditions, the highest and lowest latitudes for example, architects continue to generate insightful daylighting strategies, approaches that often lead to eloquent spatial and formal ideas. Happily, these responses turn out to be more than local idiosyncrasy and are found to be widely relevant, even in mild, middle latitudes.

Meaningful and sense-rewarding architecture is a product of gathering local daylight and the use of that knowledge to generate architectural space. Our most accomplished architects have always known this and have used their understanding of the sky to receive daylight, organize space, bring coherence to buildings, select materials, and invest architecture with meaning. Appropriately daylighted space generates its own interior light, a kind of light that can only happen in that place in the world. In this way, daylight helps us develop meaningful architectural form. Gunnar Asplund’s design for the Stockholm Public Library is one such example of careful thinking about how a building is daylighted and how meaningful space is organized. Asplund’s understanding of daylight, his lifelong interest in the use of the ceiling as a sky, and his engagement of the Nordic sky to design the library’s lending room, resulted in his substitution of a flat ceilinged cylinder for his first proposal, a glazed dome over that space. Observers have generally favored a functional and economic explanation for this change. This is reasonable, as far as it goes, but it is not the whole story. Asplund himself specifically cited his interest in illumination with clear daylight as the motive for this refinement. Additionally, the flat ceiling and the tall windows in the drum’s walls control sun and daylight better than the glazed dome. This is not just because the great expanse of glazing was eliminated or due to the availability of clear glass for the windows. The white, plastered drum walls provide substantially more diffusing surface and, as our studies show, better distribute the low-angle sun and skylight – Nordic light. These decisions have never been fully recognized or investigated. The library, completed in 1928, offers Stockholm “illumination” in two senses. It admits daylight to the very center of the building, the lending room where the book collection resides, and, as Sweden’s first open-shelf library, the general public is given access with only limited supervision, to the world’s knowledge, the other kind of enlightenment. The windows encircling the lending room recognize this. It is these openings to the Nordic sky and its “midnight sun” that enable the space to be daylighted virtually twenty-four hours a day, on at least a few days every year – even if we are not always there to appreciate it. In this manner, the lending room, at the center of the library and in a building in the center of the city, is illuminated by knowledge and light from around the world.

Martin Schwartz is an architect, Associate Professor, and Associate Chair of the Department of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University in Detroit, Michigan, USA. His research concerns daylight and its broad influence on architectural and urban design. In 1991-1992, Martin was the Willard A. Oberdick Fellow at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan and, in 1994, he was the Frederick Charles Baker Distinguished Professor in Lighting at the Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon. He was guest Architect-in-Residence at the Department of Architecture, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2004. Martin recently presented a research paper, “Form and Performance: Daylight as a Generator of Space and Form in Jorn Utzon’s ‘Can Lis’ at the Fourth International Utzon Symposium in Sydney, Australia, in 2014. He writes a blog about daylight, Architecture in the Light of Day, at www.architectureinthelightofday.blogspot.com. He is the author of the book, Gunnar Birkerts: Metaphoric Modernist, published in 2009.


DIFFUSE DAYLIGHT AUTONOMY
by Bernard Paule

To quantify buildings daylighting performance, most standards dealing with environmental quality and energy efficiency, such as LEED, BREAM, CERTIVEA or DGNB, mainly rely on daylight factor values (DF). Besides the fact that this approach is not intuitive, it also does not take into account the orientation nor the localization of the project.

The use of a more “concrete” notion such as Daylighting Autonomy (number of hours during which the use of artificial lighting is not necessary) would be more useful to building owners or designers in so far as it gives them the opportunity to estimate the energy consumption due to electric lighting, which is key information.

A lot of work was done on this subject within the last decades: CIE charts [1] and Swiss contributions based on diffuse daylight (ASE [2], DIAL-? Europe project [3]), developments from Nabil, Mardaljevic and Reinhart based on global daylight [4],[5], or ADEME publications [6]. Nevertheless, it appears that, in practice, building professionals actually do not know what are the affordable targets to match. The common sense suggests that the potential for an office building located in the northern part of Germany should dramatically differ from the one of a primary school in Portugal, but information simply does not exist.

This presentation proposes to provide the designers with a table of correspondence between DF values and Diffuse Daylighting Autonomy for the European area. This table should be used to address questions such as: “Which coverage of my lighting needs could be achieved with a 2.5% Daylight factor?”

Bernard Paule is co-founder and manager of Estia SA. The company is located in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) Innovation Park (Lausanne, CH), and is offering services in building-physics and sustainable development in architecture (specialized in daylighting and building energy efficiency). Author and designer of the DIAL-Europe & DIAL+ softwares, Bernard Paule is currently involved in the IEA SHC Task 50 “Advanced Lighting Solutions for Retrofitting Buildings” (co-leader of Subtask C dealing with Methods & Tools). He is part-time lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), and is also involved in the Lighting Minergie® training courses.


Q&A
with Song Yehao, Natalia Sokol, Martin Scwartz and Bernard Paule


NEW TOOLS FOR EASY AND ACCURATE SIMULATION OF COMPLEX DAYLIGHTING
by Henrik Wann Jensen

In this talk he demonstrated the new capabilities of the Velux Daylight Visualizer and show how it enables accurate and fast simulations of complex daylighting including light pipes. He also described how models from the Daylight Visualizer can be exported to KeyShot in order to create photorealistic images of a 3D model with an accurate representation of both daylighting and electrical lighting from IES lights. In effect these two tools makes it easy and fast to both simulate and visualize complex (day) lighting in architectural models.

Henrik Wann Jensen is the Chief Scientist at Luxion – makers of KeyShot, and he is a professor at the University of California at San Diego, where he is working in the computer graphics lab. His research is focused on realistic image synthesis, global illumination, rendering of natural phenomena, and appearance modeling. His contributions to computer graphics include the photon mapping algorithm for global illumination, and the first technique for efficiently simulating subsurface scattering in translucent materials. He is the author of “Realistic Image Synthesis using Photon Mapping,” AK Peters 2001.

He has rendered images that have appeared on the frontcovers of the National Geographic Magazine and the SIGGRAPH proceedings. He previ ously worked at Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Weta, Pixar, and at mental images. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Denmark. He is the recipient of an Academy Award (Technical Achievement Award) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for pioneering research in rendering translucent materials. He also received a Sloan Fellowship, and was selected as one of the top 10 scientists by Popular Science magazine.


EVALUATION OF DAYLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS IN WORKING ENVIRONMENTS
by Alessia Pedace

Achieving an adequate entrance of daylight in working environments is extremely important, not only for energy savings purposes but also to ensure users’ wellbeing and health. It is indeed well known that light has a strong impact on people: for example, it influences the human circadian system which regulates the timing of several biological processes (known as circadian rhythms) inside our body.

To keep a 24h cycle, the human circadian system needs to be synchronized every day by an adequate exposure to light and for millennia daylight was the main light source available, therefore it is the main zeitgeber of the circadian system. The importance of keeping a 24h cycle lies in the fact that circadian disruption, which happens when the circadian system’s period is not 24 hours, has been linked to several health diseases. At the present time it is not completely understood how the circadian system works, but it is known that its response to a light stimulus depends on light’s intensity, SPD, duration and timing of exposure. Therefore to evaluate the circadian impact of daylight in indoor environments it is necessary to analyze its characteristics at the eye level of the users located inside the environment. In this paper the results of measurements carried out in three offices, with different exposures, located in Naples (Italy) during different seasons (winter, spring, summer and autumn) will be illustrated. These measurements were performed every hour, using a Konica Minolta CS 2000 spectroradiometer and a Konica Minolta T10 luxmeter, and include sky SPDs and CCTs, desk and outdoor illuminances as well as spectral irradiances, illuminances and CCTs measured at the eye level of a person seated at the desk.

Eye level spectral irradiances were also used to predict the photo activation of the different photopigments in the human eye, which are linked to the circadian system, using the Irradiance Toolbox developed by Lucas et al. The goal is to perform an evaluation of daylight’s characteristics in these offices which takes into account not only visual aspects of daylight but also non visual ones by analyzing the light that reaches the users’ eyes.

Alessia Pedace is a PhD student in Lighting Engineering at the Department of Energy, Information Engineering and Mathematical Models of the University of Palermo, Palermo (Italy). After graduating in Architecture at the University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy) with an MSc thesis on non visual effects of light, she continued her research activity in this field at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the same University. Her research project involves the analysis of lighting quality in indoor environments taking into account both visual and non visual responses to light.


DAYLIGHT METRICS AND THEIR SENSIBILITY
by Sophie Stoffer, Kathrine Brejnrod

Nowadays there exists considerable knowledge and focus on how daylight increases our physical and mental well-being, as well as our performance. Particular weight is placed on how to bring daylight into buildings in order to reduce the building’s overall energy consumption and to improve the indoor climate within a more complex framework of regulations.

With focus on daylight provisions as well as energy consumption, different daylight metrics have been assessed with the aim to create a basis for recommending a common daylight metric for the European Daylighting Standard. The assessment contains an evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of each metric, including the challenges by moving from a static to a dynamic climate-based daylight metric.

The following metrics are included in the analysis:

– The Daylight Factor (DF)
– The continuous Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDIcon)
– The continuous Daylight Autonomy (DAcon)
– The maximum Daylight
Autonomy (DAmax)

The sensitivity of the various daylight metrics is investigated via a parametric study according to different design alternatives and conditions in order to create an understanding of their sensitivity towards different parametric changes. Changes in different design parameters, as well as changes in orientation and location, are taken into account in the evaluation.

The parametric study is performed with the program iDbuild, which is developed as an early-stage design tool in an integrated design process of low-energy buildings. iDbuild can provide a combination of both energy and daylight conditions and it is an easy assessment tool in a parametric study.

The study showed that the dynamic metrics are very sensitive towards changes in orientation and location as well as façade design. Additionally, it is seen that the sensitivity towards a certain parameter is not the same according to the locations. E.g. the sensitivity towards the different orientations shifts with the location, thus the orientation is seen to influence more in some locations than others. The Daylight Factor on the other hand is a static metric and is therefore neither sensitive towards location nor orientation. When it comes to changes in façade design, the Daylight Factor only shows a minor sensitivity when compared to the dynamic metrics. The analysis of the shifting sensitivity towards locations is an important factor when evaluating a common European daylight metric, and contributes to a more detailed picture of the assessment tools of the variable daylight conditions in Europe. Concerning the energy consumption in combination with the dynamic daylight metrics the correlation is seen to be complex. Both the dynamic daylight metrics and the energy consumption changes in relation to orientations and locations, but the changes in the dynamic daylight metrics does not necessarily show whether the changes will have a positive or negative impact on energy consumption. The correlation between the dynamic metrics and the energy consumption concerning different design parameters is therefore seen to shift when for instance the location shifts. It was found that the dynamic metrics were relatively easily calculated, and a combination of the dynamic metrics UDIcon and DAmax, together with the effect on energy consumption, is preferable when evaluating the daylight conditions from different design options.

Sophie Stoffer and Kathrine Brejnrod is research assistants at Lighting Design Research at the Department of Engineering at Aarhus University in Denmark. Their professional interest is a holistic approach on how day- and electric lighting is integrated in building spaces with focus on the architectural expression, energy performance and occupants’ wellbeing. Their background is Architectural engineering, with specialization in integrated building Design, Aarhus University, Graphical Art at Graphical School in Aarhus and Group and Organization Psychology at University College Copenhagen (UCC).


EVALUATION OF BUILDINGS IN THE FUTURE
by Elpida Vangeloglou

This paper presents the designers view on daylight design in new and refurbished buildings. The inevitable turn of the building sector to sustainable design techniques has brought daylight analysis to the center of attention. Buildings with an enhanced daylight performance have minimized energy requirements and an improved indoor climate. However, assessing daylight conditions is somewhat adhered to old-fashioned methods, as building regulations and schemes in most countries are not updated to research findings.

Daylight Factor is the most widely used method of establishing compliance with building codes and credits within environmental assessment schemes such as BREEAM, DGNB etc. As much as this method is easy to comprehend and apply, it leaves the designer a lot of space to produce a building with uncomfortable or energy intensive daylight conditions. That is because DF takes no account of the building location, façade orientation or varying sky conditions. Moreover it provides no indication of glare or visual comfort nor is the solar shading taken into account. The latter is of increasing importance in low energy buildings since the solar shading is more often used and is vital for the expected performance of the building. Instead, the introduction of climatebased daylight calculations that rely on hourly meteorological data over the year, form much more accurate, yet simple measures of the daylight conditions in a building. That is because they make daylight assessments tailored to each building, whilst producing information on lighting energy savings, indoor illuminance conditions and occupant comfort. Climate based daylight metrics could effectively replace daylight factor in regulation and scheme requirements. So far the DA and UDI methods are applied by the UK Education Funding Agency for the evaluation of designs submitted for the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP). Furthermore a variation of DA, the so-called Spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA) is used in the environmental ration system LEED v4.

An example with four shadings shows that the solution achieving the lowest daylight factor in the examined room was actually the solution with the most hours/working year of useful illuminance levels and with adequate daylight autonomy. So by accounting for the bespoke climatic annual conditions of the building as well as its location, the design decisions for improved daylight can be altered. It underlines the importance of using the right daylight criteria in the design phase and hence also update the existing regulations and schemes to Climate Based Daylight metrics.

Elpida Vangeloglou is a Sustainability Engineer at the High Performance Buildings department of Ramboll UK. Her academic background is formed of an MSc in Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete and an MSc in Sustainable Energy in Buildings at the Technical University of Denmark. Elpida has dedicated a significant part of the MSc dissertation she carried out as an intern at MicroShade A/S to daylight analysis and has collaboratively published an article on the subject, while her first scientific publication regarded passive design solutions.


Q&A
with Henrik Wann Jensen, Alessia Pedace, Sophie Stoffer, Kathrine Brejnrod and Elpida Vangeloglou


DAYLIGHT STANDARDS: SOME LESSONS FROM HISTORY
by Alan Lewis

British post-war planning guidance proposed that cities be rebuilt according to scientific principles. Mathematical tools were devised to determine built form; daylight levels within buildings were to be evaluated using a metric called the daylight factor.

The daylight factor is a measure of the illuminance within a room (usually on a horizontal plane), relative to the total amount of light that would be available under an unobstructed hemisphere with an overcast sky, expressed as a percentage. Recommendations on daylighting were expressed in terms of daylight factors in post-war guidance, including in the Code of Practice BS CP 3 Chapter 1(A) (1949) Daylight: dwellings and schools. However, statutory daylighting standards for dwellings were not introduced at this time. Instead, in 1952 the Ministry of Housing and Local Government introduced permissible height indicators, for use by local planning authorities in evaluating new housing. These indicators offered a means of assessing whether there was sufficient space between buildings to permit rooms to receive adequate daylight, based on assumptions regarding the typical size of windows. Similarly, standards affecting daylighting in dwellings, incorporated into the Building Regulations introduced in England and Wales in 1966, controlled the space about buildings rather than daylight levels within buildings.

The daylight factor is still the principal metric used in guidance on daylighting, including in the British Standards. Recent research indicates that many new-build housing schemes do not comply with recommended daylight factors, and that few architects undertake daylight factor calculations when designing buildings, a cause for concern given the proven health benefits of daylight. Some commentators argue that the daylight factor is now obsolete.

This paper will explore whether non-statutory daylighting standards, based on the daylight factor, were effective in promoting good daylighting in housing in England and Wales. The study draws on archival material, and on interviews with practising and retired architects. It will be argued that many of the daylight prediction techniques developed around the daylight factor were difficult and time consuming to use. For example, the methods developed in the 1950s by the BRS (Building Research Station) for calculating daylight factor at a point, and which were incorporated into the British Standards, required a three-stage process; the externally reflected, internally reflected and sky components had to be calculated separately. An alternative approach was to use photoelectric cells, which could be placed in a building or model, but this required specialist equipment and a high degree of skill. In addition, this method was only really effective when used in conjunction with an artificial sky, which allowed the effects of diffuse light from an overcast sky to be measured independently of the effects of direct sunlight.

Given the time and skill required to utilise these daylight prediction techniques, practitioners rarely used them, except where required by funding bodies or Local Planning Authorities; requirements to use such techniques were rare in the design of housing. Daylight prediction methods developed around the daylight factor were useful in establishing objective standards. Also, crucially, architects who became familiar with such techniques often developed a robust understanding of the science of daylighting, even if they did not calculate daylight factors for every building they designed.

Alan Lewis is a Research Associate in the Manchester Architecture Research Centre at the University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on the intersection of Government policy and architectural practice, with a particular interest in the production of design guidance and the study of its effects on the built environment. He trained as an architect before completing a PhD in Architecture at the University of Sheffield in 2006. He then worked at the University of Sheffield until 2011, when he moved to the University of Manchester.


THE URGENT NEED AND BATTLE TO MODERNIZE DAYLIGHT REGULATION
by Paul Rogers

Sweden is a country which experiences pronounced seasonal variations in daylight. In the winter months, overcast skies predominate so both the duration and intensity of daylight is often extremely limited. Although the general population spends the majority of these darker months indoors, the amount of daylight allotted in both existing and newly constructed Swedish buildings has been reduced over the past decade. Without quantitative legislation for daylight, this trend will continue.

This paper (1) traces the history of Sweden’s failed daylight legislation from the mid 1970’s, (2) identifies the primary factors contributing to the trend of reduced daylight in buildings, and (3) outlines the ongoing process of reawakening and modernizing existing legislation, and the inherent challenges this presents. Stakeholders are identified and the anticipated consequence of the legislation on these groups is discussed. The lessons learned from the above are summarized in general terms applicable to parallel markets in other countries. The failure of Sweden’s initial attempt at daylight regulation over the past forty years has been the result of a number of factors acting concurrently. One of these was the difficulty of applying manual computational methodologies of the time. With daylight regulation mired in uncertainty and nearly forgotten, market trends have been given priority. Increasing urban density, maximizing interior space, increasing energy efficiency as well as a number of current architectural fashions have been the main factors adversely affecting use of daylight. The first three of these trends are expected to persist and intensify both in Sweden and abroad. It should also be noted that these factors seldom act in isolation but rather in chorus with one another. In Sweden, the trend towards environmental certification of buildings has provided a degree of relief. The mandatory daylight requirement of the popular domestic environmental certification system, ‘Miljöbyggnad’, has prompted the Swedish building code authority to provide much needed clarification in their newly released version of the building code. Numerous challenges remain however. The first step in solving this puzzle is the creation of a standardized national calculation methodology. A re-examination of the applicable threshold values will also be needed.

Generally speaking however, the most important challenge to the success of daylight regulation would seem to be gaining the support and confidence of the building industry and those responsible for enforcing the building codes. The support of both being essential to a viable and well-functioning daylight legislation.

Paul Rogers is an architect and Sustainability Coordinator at BAU Architects in Stockholm. A registered BREEAM assessor, he specializes in daylight certification of buildings. He is founder of the LinkedIn discussion forum ‘Svensk dagsljusberäkning’ (Swedish daylight calculation) which has over 200 members. Along with select members of this group, he is working to advance domestic daylight certification methodologies, and to help Swedish Building code authorities modernize the country’s daylight regulations.


EUROPEAN DAYLIGHT STANDARD - STATUS
by Marc Fontoynont

There is currently under development a European standard on daylight. The standard when complete will be part of a set of European Standards in the area of lighting application created by CEN together with EN 12464-1 – Light and Lighting, Lighting of Work Places, Indoor Work Places and EN 15193 – Energy Performance of Buildings, Energy Requirements for Lighting. The current working group developing the standard is made up of 22 experts representing 12 different national standards bodies.

The standard proposes methods to assess various aspects related to good daylighting in buildings. It contains procedures to assess quantities of daylight reaching buildings interiors, and also minimum view toward the outside.

Also methods are proposed to rate glare protection, as well as ways to provide minimum sunlight penetration in rooms ( for dwellings , and other spaces wher sunlight is important). The target being to avoid – poorly lit spaces, the standard includes also minimum recommendations with quantitative figures. For instance, it is recommended that daylit spaces should be daylit at least 50% of annual daylight hours. Distinction is made for spaces lit from facades of from roof. Minimum recommendations can be achieved with climate based daylight modelling or computation of Daylight Factors.

Marc Fontoynont is Professor at Danish Buidling Research Institute, Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is currently running research on perception of lighting quality, energy efficiency and models of Total Cost of Ownership of lighting systems. He has been working until 2011 at ENTPE/CNRS, Lyon France. He is involved in CIE activities, European funded research projects and programmes from the International Energy Agency. He is currently the convener of TC169/WG11 addressing daylight in buildings.


Q&A
with Paul Rogers, Marc Fontoynont and Alan Lewis


AFTERNOON SESSION
DAYLIGHT, PERCEPTION, MOVEMENT AND EMBODIED EXPERIENCES
by Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson’s art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. Eliasson strives to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large. Art, for him, is a crucial means for turning thinking into doing in the world. Eliasson’s diverse works – in sculpture, painting, photography, film, and installations – have been exhibited widely throughout the world. Not limited to the confines of the museum and gallery, his practice engages the broader public spherethrough architectural projects and interventions in civic space.

Olafur Eliasson was born in 1967. He grew up in Iceland and Denmark and studied, from 1989 to 1995, at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1995, he moved to Berlin and founded Studio Olafur Eliasson, which today encompasses some ninety craftsmen, specialised technicians, architects, archivists, administrators, programmers, art historians, and cooks. Since the mid-1990s, Eliasson has realised numerous major exhibitions and projects around the world.

In 2003, Eliasson represented Denmark at the 50th Venice Biennale, with The blind pavilion, and, later that year, he installed The weather project at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, London. Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, a survey exhibition organised by SFMOMA in 2007, travelled until 2010 to various venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Innen Stadt Aussen (Inner City Out), at Martin-Gropius-Bau in 2010, involved interventions across Berlin as well as in the museum. Similarly, in 2011, Seu corpo da obra (Your body of work) engaged with three institutions around São Paulo – SESC Pompeia, SESC Belenzinho, and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo – and spread out into the city itself.

Eliasson’s projects in public space include Green river, carried out in various cities between 1998 and 2001, and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007, designed together with Kjetil Thorsen.

The New York City Waterfalls, commissioned by Public Art Fund, were installed on Manhattan and Brooklyn shorelines during summer 2008. Your rainbow panorama, a 150-metre circular, coloured-glass walkway situated on top of ARoS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, opened in 2011, and Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre, for which Eliasson created the facades in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects was completed that same year.

As a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, Eliasson led the Institut für Raumexperimente (Institute for Spatial Experiments; 2009–14), a five-year experimental programme in arts education located in the same building as his studio (www.raumexperimente.net).

In 2012, Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen founded Little Sun. The social business and global project provides clean, affordable light to communities without access to electricity; encourages sustainable development through sales of the Little Sun solar-powered lamp, designed by Eliasson and Ottesen; and raises global awareness of the need for equal access to energy and light (www.littlesun.com).

Eliasson lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.


WINNERS OF NATURAL LIGHT
Mariana Arando and Luca Fondello

Ms. Mariana Arando & Mr. Luca Fondello are both from Argentina and are studying Industrial Design at the University of Buenos Aires in FADU (Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning).

The jury, consisting of experts within the fields of sustainability, innovation and marketing, had this to say on the winning design:

“At the heart of the winning lamp is a simple, poetic idea that fulfils all the competition’s criteria. In design, functionality, and name, it tells a captivating story, beautifully presented, about light’s ability to connect a community or family and create social spaces. Focusing on the way that the lamps can be joined together to create one larger lamp, the story reveals the lamps’ inherent narrative of collectivity and individuality, each one functioning equally as well on its own as it does in combination with other units. The lamp’s integrated hook exhibits both versatility and adaptability, while the large lens distributes light efficiently. Its unique shape combines with an open form, producing a lamp that is as practical as it is beautiful. The strength of the lamp’s design culminates in its international applicability, marketable equally in London and Harare, without the beauty and the functionality compromising one another.”

The production of the winning lamp will take place at the end of 2015. The VELUX Group will donate 14,500 solar lamps distributed by Plan International to local entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Senegal. The distribution model employed is very similar in concept to micro loans, in which small local entrepreneurs who cannot obtain loans under normal circumstances due to a lack of steady income or collateral are offered small loans that can help their businesses get started. To get their sales started, these entrepreneurs will initially receive a stock of Natural Light lamps for free. Once they have sold their stock, the result is a profit for themselves and also the capital to purchase additional lamps to sell, establishing their own self-sustaining small businesses.