Predicting the Daylit Area—A Comparison of Students Assessments and Simulations at Eleven Schools of Architecture

Abstract

In recent years, climate-based metrics, in particular daylight autonomy, have found their way into North American standards and green building rating systems. The authors showed in an earlier pilot study that subjective space evaluations by architecture students correlated well with daylight-autonomy-based daylit area simulations in a single north-facing studio space in Boston. For this article, the authors collaborated with educators at 11 schools of architecture and applied the method consistently to 13 spaces within the participating schools. The schools are located in Brazil (2), Canada (1), Egypt (1), and the United States (7). The authors also introduce the concept of a “partially daylit area” metric based on a minimum illuminance threshold for daylight autonomy of 150 lux. The two metrics correctly determined in 18 out of 24 cases which parts of the study space are fully or partially daylit. The authors accordingly propose a two-tier evaluation system to rate the daylight availability in spaces.