Advantages of day lighting include reducing energy and HVAC costs and it produces attractive interior environments. Day lighting can be an environmentally responsible solution that also promotes healthier living among occupants. Light in a building can be used as a material. It can create environments to serve many different purposes. Natural light can also bring out the small architecture details that architects in Michigan are trying to achieve. Through trial and error designers have come up with many different strategies to accomplish day lighting to fit various uses, forms and needs of a building. Skylights, light shelves, solar apertures and vegetation can be used to your benefit to diffuse light and spread it more evenly throughout a space. Ultimately, creating healthier more productive spaces.
Effects of the built environment involves more than just air quality and the form of spaces. The influence artificial lighting has on residents impacts productivity and ones overall well being. Poorly lit spaces are going to create uncomfortable, unproductive spaces. For employers it is important to incorporate day lighting into the work environments because artificial lighting reduces visual comfort and reduces productivity. Allowing access to natural light allows people to maintain their internal clock. Also, exposure to natural light can reduce the effects of the seasonal blues. The influence day lighting has on occupants is something that is usually unnoticed, but architects in Michigan understand its importance and strive to implement day lighting methods that will benefit our clients on various levels.
There is a science behind quality day lighting design. Unfortunately, the sun goes down so we cannot utilize its benefits 24 hours a day. Architects have created ways other than light shelves and baffle to create healthy lighting in a building. Task and ambient lighting is considered when placing day lighting tools and artificial lighting equipment to ensure quality work spaces and prevent the interruption of productivity. Architects in Michigan use simple equations to ensure the best solutions for individual spaces. They can carefully evaluate how much of an impact a 30’ tree will have on a space 20’ from a building, how deep light will penetrate a space, and the overall size of a day lighting aperture. Buildings are used differently so utilizing these tools safeguards that the most productive and comfortable spaces are being created to suit the needs of a structure. Daylighting is important in all building types, institutional, residential, commercial. Daylighting can promote productivity in an office, increase recovery rates in hospitals, or simply create more enjoyable environments at home. The benefits of day lighting can be reaped in all settings and Sedgewick + Ferweda Architects can help you accomplish that.
Based on orientation your building can maximize the benefits of sunlight. However, too much day lighting that is not carefully distributed throughout a building can be a bad thing. Architects in Michigan use tools like light shelves, baffles, solar apertures and vegetation to diffuse lighting in spaces. Direct sunlight into a space can cause glare and dark spaces that will result in a very uncomfortable space to be in, that’s why instruments like light shelves have been created. Light shelves redirect sunlight by bouncing the light off of other surfaces to diffuse the light throughout the room and prevent glare. When these are placed, architects in Michigan contemplate the depth, height and position of the light shelf. This information is crucial in creating successful internal lighting. These instruments are best used on walls that face the sun’s path directly. If they are placed on a way facing away from the sun’s path it will create unwanted shadows. . Solar apertures, like skylights and clerestory windows, allow us to provide day lighting into a space while preserving privacy and the look of a space.
Some are unaware of the role that vegetation plays on the interior environment of a building. Architects in Michigan like to place coniferous and deciduous trees on a site to manipulate the suns penetration into a structure. It is common for coniferous trees to be placed on the north side of a building to block cold winter winds. In contrast, placing deciduous trees on the west and south sides block the hot summer sun but allows sunlight inside during the cold winter months. Trees and other vegetation act as passive cooling because they intercept the amount of light going into a building which reduces the amount of heat production. As a result, the demand of building performance is being reduced. Architects in Michigan have learned the benefits of placing windows strategically throughout a structure. Placing windows face toward and away from the sun’s path have their benefits. Windows that are placed facing away from the sun’s path is done because these windows receive the most light throughout the day. Windows that face the sun’s path receive the brightest light but only for specific parts of the day and are more prone to glare. Providing elements that create day lighting in a space are great but that must be used carefully. Placing only one inside of a room can cause lighting differences within the space so it is best to use these methods on more than one wall to create equal distribution of light. Varying the placement of windows is essential in constructing a well light environment and preventing dark corners.
Different places in the world have various results on day lighting throughout the year. Strategic planning is required by architects in Michigan to make sure that residents are reaping the benefits year round. Daylighting techniques are passive solutions that you can incorporate into your designs that are ecologically responsible, focus on the well being of occupants and ultimately reducing building performance costs. Sedgewick + Ferweda architects can guide you through the process of incorporating day lighting methods and accomplish your design goals. Consulting with an architect in Michigan, like us, can ensure that you are getting first rate designs that will improve the performance of your structure while maintaining a healthy environment for your residents.