Visual Delight in Architecture

Visual Delight in Architecture examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight and window views within our buildings. It makes a compelling case that daily exposure to the rhythms of daylight is essential to our health and well-being, tied to the very genetic foundations of our physiology and cognitive function. It describes all the subtlety, beauty, and pleasures of well-daylit spaces and attractive window views, and explains how these are woven into the fabric of both our everyday sensory experience and enduring cultural perspectives. All types of environmental designers, along with anyone interested in human health and well- being, will fi nd new insights offered by Visual Delight in Architecture. The book is both accessible and provocative, full of personal stories and persuasive research, helping designers to gain a deeper understanding of the scientific basis of their designs, scientists to better grasp the real-world implications of their work, and everyone to more fully appreciate the role of windows in their lives.

Lisa Heschong is an architect and founding principal of the Heschong Mahone Group (HMG), a building sciences consulting firm, where she led groundbreaking research showing a relationship between daylight and student test scores, retail sales, and office worker performance. Heschong is the author of the classic Thermal Delight in Architecture, along with many technical publications about daylighting and energy effi ciency in buildings. A graduate of UC Berkeley and MIT, she is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), and received the ARCC 2012 Haecker Award for Architectural Research. Heschong lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband, two horses, and a sailboat, where she never tires of watching the changing colors of the surrounding ocean and sky.

Introduction Part 1: Prediction 1. Planetary Rhythms 2. Chronobiology and Human Health 3. The Evolving and Aging Eye 4. The Predictive Brain 5. Attention and Insight Part 2: Perception 6. Learning to See 7. Patterns of Daylight Illumination 8. Designing with Daylight 9. Elements of View Part 3: Motivation 10. Daylighting Education 11. Selling Daylight 12. Enduring Urban Forms 13. The Value of View 14. Working with Daylight 15. Healing Daylight Part 4: Meaning 16. Iconic Daylight and Views 17. Visions of Nature 18. Biophilia and Technophilia 19. Synthesis and Next Steps Conclusion Glossary List of Illustrations Notes and References Index Acknowledgements About the Author