BASEMENT OF BLOCK E08

LOCATION :
Basement of Block E08, School of Housing, Building and Planning, University of
Science Malaysia, Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia.

FUNCTION:
Hallway to Environmental Lab and lecturers’ offices. A must way for students and
lecturers to pass by going to offices and lab. It is a dark tunnel leading from the
outside of Block E08 to offices of lecturers and an Environmental Lab which is to to
provide the highest value and quality of environmental testing, monitoring,
assessment and information services to benefit everyone in the school.

USERS :
Lecturers and students of School of Housing , Building and Planning.

Picture 1 shows the day light condition of the basement block E08.

THE LIGHTING CONDITION AT THE DAY :

The only lighting in the hallway is from the small entrance. The entrance only allows
very little sunlight to pass through, the little amount of sunlight is not sufficient for the
whole basement area. It is dark and dangerous for users, lecturers and students find
that it is hard for them to walk into the basement from the entrance as they have to
switch from a very bright outdoor to the super dark basement. The dark basement is
cold and easy for mould to grow which will harm the users’ health condition and bad
for the air condition in the basement area. Besides, there is a staircase there leading
from the basement to the ground floor, the bad lighting will cause accident when
walking on the staircase. As a result, students and lecturers always have to be extra
careful when using the staircase.
IMPROVEMENT PLANS:
A. INSTALL PRISM GLASS ON TOP OF THE DOOR
Prism glass is a type of glass with ribbed surface on inside and flat surface at the
outside. The flat surface will capture sunlight and through refraction and reflection, the
sunlight will be lead into the interior space and improve the lighting using natural
sunlight instead of artificial lighting (Kramer, 2010).

B. REMOVE THE OBJECTS THAT BLOCK THE SUNLIGHT

There is a tree planted in front of the entrance of the basement. The tree blocks the
sunlight to enter the basement. Thus, the tree should be removed so that the sunlight
can enter the area. Besides, at the entrance of the hallway is big bookshelf by the wall
which is blocking
References:

Kramer, G. (2010, December 18). Prismatic Glass [Web log post].

Retrieved from
http://thepreserveoregonblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/prismatic-glass.html