Light, Sight and Architecture

Therefore, challenges that we, designers and architects in arid climates, are compounded with are two fold: Firstly is to approach the problem of daylight design in arid climates differently from the conventional methods of the West. The challenges faced in societies with abundant sunlight are intrinsically different than those faced in cold, overcast skies. Secondly is to take into account, in this process, the role that the human eye plays in reacting to given spaces and its contribution, if at all, to overall daylight design. In tackling these two distinct challenges, three types of experiments were conducted. 1. Built Test Facility: this experiential model includes evaluations on perceptions in controlled sequences of spaces designed through interviews, with subjects entering and working in differentiated space with controlled lighting. 2. Computational Model: this is analytical in nature, using a computer model to test different light measures. 3. Applied Research in Design (In site experiments): this includes actual built examples that test the journey that the hypothesis develops with each additional experiment.