Ecology of Daylighting:

Design Matters

How sense-luscious the world is. In the summer, we can be decoyed out of bed by
the sweet smell of the air soughing through our bedroom window. The sun playing
across the curtains gives them a moire effect, and they seem to shudder in light,
someone might hear the dawn sound of a cardinal....We need to return to feeling
the textures of life.
-- Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

Mary Guzowski
Associate Professor
guzow001@umn.edu

Ecology of Daylighting:
Design Matters

What Matters?: 12 Critical realms of influence

1. Process matters: Break down barriers between design disciplines + beyond
2. Goals matter: Raise the bar: inspire change (Global warming; use; etc.)
3. Place matters: know the site and building metabolism (living design)
4. Passive matters: (daylight integrated with natural ventilation & passive heat
5. Modest matters: use less (use less and less; aspire for ZED)
6. Form matters: (then technology)
7. Color and materials matter: link color and concept
8. Envelope matters: Living skins - link three-dimensionally and in layers
9. Systems matter: Integrate innovative and renewabl;e systems and
technologies
10. Flexibility matters: (design for adaptability and change)
11. Health matters: physical and psychological well-being
12. Assessment matters: qualitative and quantitative

1. Process Matters:
Ecological connections between disciplines + beyond

• Challenge boundaries between design disciplines and

beyond
• Integrate ecology, economy, equity
• Consider design linkages across scales and issues
(integrate across boundaries and disciplines)
• See daylighting with a fresh approach (reconsider what
you currently see as limits)

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 Beyond Incremental Improvements
Going Beyond LEED
The Living Building Challenge

Global Warming Emissions

AIA Minnesota 2004 Climate Change Position Statement
Energy Efficient Residential and Commercial Buildings
20% Renewable Energy by 2020
Architecture 2030 Challenge - Carbon Neutral Buildings
(adopted by AIA National and US Council of Mayors)
60% CO2 Reduction by 2010
70% CO2 Reduction by 2015
80% CO2 Reduction by 2020
90% CO2 Reduction by 2025
Carbon Neutral by 2030

2030 Challenge: www.architecture 2030.org

2. Goals matter:
Raise the bar: inspire change (Global warming;
use; etc.);

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, WHY, AND HOW?

• Link concepts, program needs, and ecological concerns
• Go beyond incremental improvement: redefine the
ecological goals and visions
• Strive for “next generation” thinking for sustainability:
what aren’t we considering that we should? What
linkages aren’t being made?
• Can daylight solve multiple concerns (poetic, pragmatic,
ecological)?

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 PROGRAM NARRATIVE
framing the questions
defining your intentions
developing a conceptual framework
• What?
• Who?
• When?
• Where?
• How?

NEXT GENERATION THINKING

what are we missing?
how can daylight do more?
• Daylight and health?
• Daylight and education?
• Daylight and renewable energy?
• Daylight and food production?
• Daylight and waste processing?
• Daylight and healing?
Adam Lewis Center, Oberlin • Daylight and beauty?
• Daylight and social connections?
expand client’s intentions and program • Etc….?

2. Goals matter:
Raise the bar: inspire change
Z6 House, Ray Kappe and LivingHomes
(zero-energy, waste, carbon, emissions, water, ignorance)

3. Place matters
Know the site and interior building metabolism
create living designs

• Take a bioregional approach; know place (mood, feeling,

seasonal & diurnal phenomena)
• Consider time and change as positive forces
– Environment, architecture/interiors, human interaction
• Create “living design” (dynamic, changing)
• Consider interior design opportunities to celebrate place
and connect to seasonal transitions (light, heat, air, inside-
out connections)
• Design to “place” inhabitants (foster reverence for place)

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 Know your
Ecosystem

know the ecosystem and site inhabitants

Climate data: Sun, wind, and light (DeKay)

Know your climate

know the sky conditions and seasonal moods

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 know the site sources of light

Baagsvaard Church
Jorn Utzon, Denmark

Strive for place inspired light; help

“place” inhabitants

Seabird Island School

Patkau Architects, B.C.

•Foster connection to
site forces and seasonal
shifts
•Consider interior and
exterior migrations
•Celebrate seasonal
changes: finishes,
details, furnishings,
color
•Foster different places
of light in time

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 Kyoto Protocol House
Sarah Nettelton Architects, Minneapolis

4. Passive Matters:
• Harvest free energy (wind, light, Strive for ZED;
heat)
• Eliminate or dramatically reduce
need for fossil fuels
• Combine design for light, heat,
and air
• Select materials and finishes to
support the integration of
passive systems and daylighting
• Consider space planning to
support passive design
(furnishing, floor treatments,
exposure to mass)
• Consider skin, shading, interior
window treatments for seasonal
issues

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 House at Bingie Point
Glenn Murcutt, Australia

Select interior materials and finishes to combine

lighting, heating, and cooling on a seasonal basis

5. Modest matters:
Use less and less and less; continue to aspire for ZED
consider need vs. want

• Do more with less: Use daylight for multiple uses; (consider

what revisions can done via programming?)
• Eliminate or dramatically reduce consumption of fossil fuel
(what do you really need; what can you harvest free from
the site?)
• Be creative with programming and space planning
(balance quality, quantity, poetic, pragmatic)
• How can material selection, finishes, detailing, etc. help
achieve optimal daylight with minimal means?
• Put light where it is really needed
• Celebrate shadow (not just light – a little goes a long way if
done well)

A little can go a long way

less is more

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 Put light where it’s needed
Ambient vs. task lighting

Government Canyon Visitor Center

San Antonio, TX, Lake Flato Architects

Eliminate space that is not needed

Create outdoor rooms and circulation where possible
Blur interior and exterior boundaries when appropriate

Thomas Herzog
Solar Housing in Denmark (in planning)

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 Colorado Court Affordable Housing
Santa Monica, Pugh+Scarpa

“southwest”

“southeast”

Beddington Zero Energy Development

(BedZED) Sutton, England; Bill Dunster Architects

bedZED: Dunsler Architects, England

Modest Matters: Use layers of light and space – tiny can work

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 6. Form Matters:
(then technology)

CRITICAL ISSUES OF FORM

1. Use the right strategy for the right job
2. Keep it thin; Strive for bilateral and/or multi-lateral
3. Beg, borrow, or steal light daylight and air
4. Use the room as a light fixture (walls, floors, ceilings)
5. Control, control, control (but only when appropriate)
6. Find places to celebrate light
7. Work with shadow (not just light)
Note: Consider how this may relate to your current work?

Why would you use one strategy versus another

Daylight strategy: why does it matter (top vs. sidelight)?
1. Site issues: Site or building constraints for solar access (vegetation, adjacent
buildings)?
2. Formal, aesthetic, and/or structural issues: constraints or limitations?
3. Lighting intentions?: what are the roles of the windows; views, light, passive
solar, aesthetics, etc. (when is side vs. top better?)
4. Programmatic issues: what are you trying to light? Perimeter, surface, space,
object?
5. Quantitative vs, qualitative issues: How much light is needed and when?
(top more efficient – smaller aperture needed, but seasonal overheating);
seasonal sun angles; desired effect & quality?
6. Comfort issues: thermal comfort and visual comfort; quality vs. quantity of
light from side vs. top and from different orientations?
7. Ecological issues: energy and resource goals; links to health and well-being,
green economics, etc.

6. Form Matters:
Use the right strategy for the right job

• Sidelight
• Toplight
– Clerestories
– Lightscoops
– Sunscoops
– Monitors
• Hybrid (top + side
+ other)
• Atria
• Lightwells

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 Toplighting or sidelight; hybrid?
Link to place, program, experience

Consider Volume vs. surface vs. skin

Nasher – Piano; Kashino - Ando

6. Form Matters:
Keep it thin; Strive for bilateral or multilateral daylight

Palmetto House
Jersey Devils, Florida

Consider interior forms, finishes and detailing to optimize light, air, heat

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 6. Form Matters:
Beg, borrow, or steal daylight and views

Ove Arup Office

England

Beg, borrow, and steal daylight and views

6. Form Matters:
Use the room as a light fixture (walls, floors, ceilings)

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 6. Form Matters:
Consider control, control, control (but only when needed)

6. Form Matters:
Find places to celebrate light and provide relief

6. Form Matters:
Work with shadow (not just light)

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 7. Colors and Materials Matter:
Use color and value to support your goals

Color and Materials

Consider natural colors of light: sky conditions

Color and Materials

Consider natural colors of light: time of day
James Turrell, Night Rise,
Location Scottsdale Museum of
Contemporary Art, Nancy and Art Schwalm
Sculpture Garden

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 Color and Materials
Consider natural colors of material and interaction with light

Color and Materials

Consider the interaction of light, color, and
interior or exterior finishes

Color and Materials

Consider interaction between surfaces
and reflected light

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 Color and Materials
Consider the manipulation of light levels or distribution

Color and Materials

Consider the physical sensation or thermal response

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 Color and Materials
Consider Expressive Opportunities
(to create a mood or feeling)

7. Color and Materials Matter

Consider day and night transitions
Chapel of St. Ignatius, Stephen Holl, Seattle, WA

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 8. Envelope matters:
Living skins: think three dimensionally and in layers

• Think inside-out: integrate interior design and

architectural designs (blur boundaries between inside
and outside; integrate design of skin across disciplines)
• Design for orientation (not all sides are equal)
• Design skin for place (window size and orientation)
• Consider the concept of a “living” ecological envelope
– Design to respond to changing site, season, climate, program
needs (adjustable, adaptable envelope)
• “Simple” envelopes work (e.g. inexpensive shading,
awning, screens, plants)
• Select forms, materials, and finishes to integrate light,
thermal, and sound (3-D envelopes)

3D skins: Layering Inside-outside

blur boundaries and link disciplines

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 8. Envelope matters:
Living skins: think three dimensionally and in layers

Not all sides are created equally

think inside-out

Layering: outside

Herzog & de Meuron

Shuttered Skin

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Layering: at the glazing

Layering Inside

The Systems Integrated 3-D Skin: structure, light, heat, ventilation

Fumihiko Maki
Tokyo Church of Christ, Japan

Bigelow Chapel
HGA, New Brighton, MN

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 9. Flexibility matters:
be adaptable for change (eliminate obsolescence)

Naked House
Shigeru Ban
Kawagoe, Japan

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 10. Health Matters:
Physical and Psychological Well-being

Healthy Places: Connections Matter

Roslyn Lindheim
“…Studies of people who get sick most often and most
seriously indicate that the people in these groups are in
some way “out of connection” and lack meaningful
social and natural connectedness. These are the lonely
ones, people disconnected from family, friends, society,
and other types of social supports. These are the people
at the lowest ends of hierarchies, disconnected from a
sense of pride and control over their lives. These are the
people disconnected from their natural environment and
rhythms and cycles of life…”
Places/Volume 2, Number 4, pp. 17-27 (reading Tues. Feb. 8)

Sick Building Syndrome

and Building Related Illness
INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (IEQ)
EPA Research
• Lighting, heating, and cooling
• Visual, thermal, and acoustic comfort
• Control systems
• Erogonomics
• Color
• Aesthetics and beauty
• Social and environmental contact and connections
• Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)….Others…

Connections Matter
inside out

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 Views matter
inner and outer

Health and View: Vivian Loftness

Professor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon; USGBC

Daylight and Offices: Heschong and Mahone

PG&E: Office Study
www.h-m-g.com/

• Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The first

study looked at 100 workers in an incoming
call center,
• Workers in the Call Center were found to
process calls 6% to 12% faster when they had
the best possible view versus those with no
view.
• Office workers were found to perform 10% to
25% better on tests of mental function and
memory recall when they had the best
possible view versus those with no view.

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Daylight and Classrooms: Heschong and Mahone
PG&E: Classroom Study
www.h-m-g.com/

• In Seattle Washington and Fort Collins Colorado,

where end-of-year test scores were used as the
outcome variable, students in classrooms with the
most daylighting were found to have 7% to 18%
higher scores than those with the least.
• In San Juan Capistrano, California, where the study
was able to examine the improvement between fall
and spring test scores, we found that students with
the most daylighting in their classrooms progressed
20% faster on math tests and 26% faster on reading
tests in one year than in those with the least.

Daylight and Retail: Heschong and Mahone

PG&E; Retail Spaces
www.h-m-g.com/

• The retailer, who will remain anonymous, allowed us

to study 73 store locations in California from 1999 to
2001. Of these, 24 stores had a significant amount of
daylight illumination, provided primarily by diffusing
skylights.
• This study was performed as a follow-on to a similar
study completed for Pacific Gas and Electric in 1999,
which found that for a certain retail chain, all other
things being equal, stores with skylights experienced
40% higher sales than those without skylights.

Operable matters

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 Ove Arup Office
England

Windows, views, visual relief, connections of all sorts: Celebrate interior and exterior
views

11. Systems Matter

Take an integrated approach (Loren’ case study)
•Coordinate the massing, plan, and
section to integrate lighting,
ventilation, heating, others…
•Take a stand for operable windows
•Integrate technology & systems
•Glazing systems
•Shading systems
•Electric lighting controls (even
manual)
•HVAC systems coordination
•Renewables
•Look for a spectrum of solutions:
simple works

12. Assessment Matters:

Qualitative and Quantitative
• Footcandle contours in plan
and section
– Quantity and distribution of light for
program, tasks, and activities
– IES recommendation comparison
• Time sequence photographs
– Sun patterns on a diurnal and seasonal
basis
– Possible problem areas from direct
sunlight, glare, veiling reflections
– Possible problems from excessive heat
gain from direct sunlight
– Shading and solar control issues
– Quality and experience of light in time

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 12. Assessment Matters:
Qualitative and Quantitative

Ecotect: www.ecotect.com

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 Ecology of Daylighting:
Design Matters

What Matters?: 12 Critical realms of influence

1. Process matters: Break down barriers between design disciplines + beyond
2. Goals matter: Raise the bar: inspire change (Global warming; use; etc.)
3. Place matters: know the site and building metabolism (living design)
4. Passive matters: (daylight integrated with natural ventilation & passive heat
5. Modest matters: use less (use less and less; aspire for ZED)
6. Form matters: (then technology)
7. Color and materials matter: link color and concept
8. Envelope matters: Living skins - link three-dimensionally and in layers
9. Systems matter: Integrate innovative and renewabl;e systems and
technologies
10. Flexibility matters: (design for adaptability and change)
11. Health matters: physical and psychological well-being
12. Assessment matters: qualitative and quantitative

Ecology of Daylighting:
Design Matters

How sense-luscious the world is. In the summer, we can be decoyed out of bed by
the sweet smell of the air soughing through our bedroom window. The sun playing
across the curtains gives them a moire effect, and they seem to shudder in light,
someone might hear the dawn sound of a cardinal....We need to return to feeling
the textures of life.
-- Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

Mary Guzowski
Associate Professor
guzow001@umn.edu

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