2019 - Daylight Symposium
"Applying the New European Daylighting Standard" by Inger Erhardtsen & Werner Osterhaus
Speakers
Werner Osterhaus
Architect and Professor of Lighting Design Research
Department of Engineering at Aarhus University
Inger Erhardtsen
Daylighting engineer
Presentation from the 8th VELUX Daylight Symposium that took place in Paris on 9 October 2019. For more information please visit http://thedaylightsite.com & https://www.velux.com/veluxdaysinparis
Good daylight quality is incredibly important for us humans: in our homes that we wish to enjoy, in educational and health care institutions, as well as in the different commercial buildings in which we work. Good daylight provisions create the foundation for human well-being and performance, for example for students’ learning, attention at work, the sleep-wake cycle of the elderly with dementia, connections with the remaining natural environment, as well as many other human biological functions. Property values on attractive buildings sites, especially in larger cities, keep rising sharply.
The desire to build higher and more compact buildings in these areas, where once older and architecturally varied buildings of different volume and height were prevalent, changes the shape of our cities. As open spaces in cities slowly disappear, newly constructed urban neighborhoods feel denser and darker. The task to create built environments that reveal excellent conditions for views, appealing indoor daylighting and exposure to the sun for at least parts of the day becomes even more important. The new European Daylighting Standard 17037 places an invaluable focus on four key daylighting qualities, each one ensuring important aspects of human well-being. With the various performance levels for daylight quality as the basis, we attempt to create an overview of how different qualities can be achieved in various building types through
• daylight levels and distribution,
• views from the occupied space,
• extent and duration of the possibility for sunshine exposure and
• visual comfort conditions for different periods of the year.
In residential buildings, hospitals and spaces for longer periods of more casual occupancy we might prioritize access to sunshine. Glare-free environments, on the other hand, are typically more important in working spaces. With the presentation, we wish to illustrate through an overview of different computer simulation examples how we can establish appropriate criteria for daylighting design for different building types and achieve daylight quality goals. In light of the increased focus on sustainability and related rating schemes, such as DGNB, LEED and BREEAM, there will undoubtedly be even more focus on daylight quality criteria in the near future. This will likely include a debate on revised urban planning and zoning regulations with the aim of ensuring access to daylight and sunlight, appropriate exposure to circadian stimuli, as well as the quality of views to natural surroundings.
Inger Erhardtsen has extensive experience as a lighting and daylighting engineer. She has special skills in addressing and designing large-scale projects, including daylighting strategies, biological-and lighting design. She worked for several years with consultancy and project management for major lighting/electrical projects. Inger has an innovative and open approach towards handling tasks. Inger has a broad experience in collaboration, solving tasks and project management cross-disciplinary (builders, architects, contractors, users and other stakeholders). Inger teaches as external lector and has participated in several research projects in collaboration with Aarhus University on the topic of lighting, LED and daylighting.
Werner Osterhaus is an architect and Professor of Lighting Design Research at the Department of Engineering at Aarhus University in Denmark. His passion lies in applying design, technology and science to architectural (day)lighting to ensure well-being and pleasant experiences for building occupants and a sustainable built environment. Werner has been involved in daylighting research and design since he first started working with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Windows and Daylighting research group in 1987. Since 1994, he has been a full-time academic in schools of architecture in the USA, New Zealand and Germany, and since 2009 in a school of engineering in Denmark. He focuses on lighting design, sustainable architecture and building environmental science. Werner has lead and contributed to numerous national and international research projects, published many scientific articles, and regularly serves as reviewer for research funding agencies and international journals.
