Daylight specifications deliver natural light to benefit patients and staff

Brick and mortar stores competing with online buyers need to maximize customer experience. Retail spaces with natural daylighting deliver a fuller shopping experience for customers; good daylight also creates an enjoyable environment for employees. Natural light creates a comfortable space that is inviting to spend time in. Roof glazing solutions can be cost-effective and have the potential to reduce artificial energy consumption.

Daylight solutions for airports and railway stations represent a challenge to designers. But it is one that has excellent rewards for people who often use these crowded spaces. In airports or train stations commuters often feel frustrated or overwhelmed. But these emotions can be positively affected by good daylight design.

Realizing the potential of daylight in hotel and conference centre projects has several benefits. Guests and visitors can experience better time spent in more natural communal spaces. While staff have shown improved happiness and an increase in productivity.

Daylight solutions can improve productivity, comfort and the well-being of office employees. Daylighting is also energy-efficient and cost effective, reducing reliance on artificial lighting. Check out our eBook: Designing daylight solutions for commercial buildings for a closer look at the impact of daylight on occupants in commercial buildings and incorporating daylight into building design.

Outside of our homes, most of our time is spent at work. Since the digital age began workplaces have made the move into office-based settings. But it is still possible to maintain a connection with the outdoors with good daylight design.

Daylight solutions enrich the recreational experiences people have when using sports facilities. Natural light in a well-being environment assists in keeping users comfortable when exercising. Communal facilities are better utilized when your building has evenly distributed illuminance levels, and lots of fresh air. A connection to the outside is proven to improve mood and the overall well-being of people.

While the science of well-being is relatively nascent, the UK Government’s ‘Foresight’ project sheds a great deal of light on five factors that have a proven effect on well-being¹, leading to the definition of the Five Ways to Well-Being (connect, keep active, take notice, keep learning, give).² The question remains, though, how do we design buildings that can positively influence these five factors?

By Koen Steemers, Professor of Sustainable Design and has been Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge.