2007 - Daylight Symposium
DAYLIGHTING AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE by Lisa Heschong
Speakers
Lisa Heschong
Architect & Founding partner
Heschong Mahone Group (HMG)
Studies in the United States have shown an association between the presence of daylight and/or outdoor views and better student learning outcomes, as well a better cognitive performance in offices and sales in retail spaces. This presentation will detail the studies’ findings, methodology and implications for school design, along with discussing various hypotheses for possible causal mechanisms, such as circadian or mental stimulation.
Lisa Heschong is a principal of Heschong Mahone Group and a licensed architect who has divided her professional practice between energy research, writing and building design. As a researcher, she led the project teams which analyzed the impacts of daylighting on human performance for the Daylighting and Productivity Studies funded through PG&E and CEC. She also led the team that analyzed baseline lighting characteristics and created a computer model of lighting energy use for the State of California Energy Commission. As a writer, she worked with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories to synthesize their research into Residential Windows: A Guide to New Technologies and Energy Performance (WW Norton). She is also author of Thermal Delight in Architecture (MIT Press), a co-author of the Advanced Lighting Guidelines, the CHPS Best Practices Manual, and the Skylighting Guidelines, all web-based publications. As a lighting expert, she has developed the successful web-based training program for the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) and conducted workshops across the country for DOE. She has published scholarly papers, written for trade magazines, and conducted numerous lectures and workshops across the country on issues of daylighting, high performance design, energy efficiency, and human comfort.
As an architect, Ms. Heschong has managed projects to design high-rise office buildings, K-12 schools, and residences. She has consulted on numerous school designs through the Bright Schools program of the California Energy Commission, and reviewed school proposals for the Office of Public School Construction. She also taught studio design at the Architecture Department of the University of California at Berkeley. She is experienced working with multi-disciplinary building design teams. She understands the construction process and the dynamics of getting a building project initiated, funded, designed, and occupied. Ms. Heschong is a member of IESNA, and is Lighting Certified. She was awarded her B.Sc. at UC Berkeley, Summa Cum Laude, and her Master of Architecture degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the AIA Medal.
