Human needs vs. modern living expectations: a case for daylight access

Natural light greatly impacts how a building is experienced by its occupants. It affects their well-being, notably from their health and biological clock perspectives, but also their perceived visual and thermal comfort, or their emotional response. If we want to support the design of places of delightful – and daylightful – living, we must bring these multifaceted considerations to become integral drivers of the creative process. This lecture will explore current research efforts aiming towards a deeper integration of daylighting performance and indoor comfort in design, by reaching out to various fields of science, from chronobiology and neuroscience to psychophysics and computer graphics. It will also provide examples of how human-centered daylighting design can be supported by research outcomes to build a well-informed, evidence-based dialogue between specialists and practitioners, and how to raise awareness of the general public to these questions.