Designing with Daylight: Incentives, Challenges and Research Perspectives
Event details
| Date | 11.05.2009 |
| Hour | 12:30 |
| Speaker | Professeur Marilyne Andersen |
| Location |
CM 120
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract
Daylighting, or more generally lighting, is one of the fundamental components of the built environment. In addition to revealing and structuring volumes, producing visual effects, and providing character to a space, it must adequately respond to our needs for visual comfort, for a connection to the outside world, and for a healthy environment. Lighting must also be carefully planned to be ecologically viable.
In terms of a building’s environmental impact, the potential for saving energy using daylight is undisputable. Buildings represent 40% of total energy use in the US, and about a quarter to 40% of that energy is generally dedicated to lighting. In addition, careful management of daylight can help to increase solar gains in winter and decrease them in summer, allowing significant reductions in cost and energy use for warming and cooling. On the other hand, numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that human productivity and well-being might be positively affected by the availability of daylight (if properly controlled) and access to a view.
In response to the increasing incentive to design buildings that take full advantage of daylighting, research is being conducted at MIT in areas ranging from innovative design tools and emerging metrics in daylight simulation to the in-depth analysis of light-redirecting materials and the effects of (day)light on human health. From a variety of perspectives, these efforts aim at increasing the amount of natural light and solar radiation usable in buildings, thereby reducing energy consumption and improving occupant comfort, health and space quality. An overview of these new research areas will be presented during this talk.
Bio
Marilyne Andersen is an Assistant Professor in the Building Technology Group of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning since summer 2004. Trained as a physicist at EPFL, she went on to specialize in daylighting and completed her PhD at the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory after having spent a year as a Visiting Scholar in the building technologies department of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. She has been awarded the Mitsui Career Development Professorship in July 2008 and will become an Associate Professor in July 2009.
Her inter-disciplinary research interests on the use and optimization of daylight in buildings led her to work across the boundaries of architecture, physics and environmental concerns.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Consuelo Antille