Natural Lighting

Natural lighting:

1. The Ministry's Health and Safety Guideline Section 5 Lighting 5.1 (a) states that "Boards of Trustees shall ensure there is sufficient and suitable lighting, whether natural or artificial, in every part of a place of work in any building for the requirements of the tasks being undertaken"

2. Evidence suggests improved learning outcomes from spaces that have daylight as the predominant source of lighting¹.

• It is argued it assists in reducing absenteeism.
• It reduces energy consumption (USA "most schools spend more on energy than books"- School Business Affairs).
• Sick building syndrome rarely seems to occur in buildings with both windows, which provided views and natural ventilation (DfEE² Building Bulletin 90, Appendix 2).
• Natural light should always be the major source of lighting during daylight hours (DfEE Lighting Design for Schools building Bulletin 90 section 3 requires this in a teaching space in UK schools).
• It can be from windows, borrowed lighting, or roof lighting e.g. solar tube.
• Windows used to provide daylight also provide views that are also equally important in providing a relaxing learning environment.
• Delighting has downsides that need to be avoided e.g. too much natural light might be as bad as too little. Direct sunlight creates:
  • Glare
  • Excessive heat build up
  • Shadows
  • Changes throughout a day
  • Impact on viewing computer screens

  www.edfacilities.org

  1 See the following sources for more details. Day lighting in Schools An Investigation into the Relationship Between Day Lighting and Human Performance - Heschong Mahone Group 1999 includes reference to school studies, University of Georgia www.coe.uga.edu; School Business Affairs (USA) December 2003; DfEE (UK) Building Bulletin 79 "Passive Solar Schools"; DfEE Building Bulletin 87 Guidelines for Environmental Design in Schools; Building Bulletin 90 Lighting Design for Schools. This is also the subject of research by the School of Architecture, Victoria University.

  2 Note the DfEE is now called the Department of Education and Skills.

• Day lighting forms the cornerstone of sustainable high performance schools affecting individuals on both a conscious and subconscious level - CHPS (The Collaborative for High Performance Schools) Best Practice Manual. This is an interesting source of information on detailed aspects of lighting, acoustic etc design of schools. It is a manual in three parts intended to cerate a new generation of high performance schools in California. Volume II contains design Guidelines.