Abstract

The main objectives of this article are: (i) to present the relations between architecture students' subjective assessment of daylight in classrooms and the objective evaluation of daylit conditions using daylight simulations tools, (ii) to formulate guidelines and recommendations on daylight appraisal methods and tools which may be useful in architectural training. The methodology used includes an evaluation of the results of the direct questionnaire and the computational simulations of the observed conditions. One hundred ninety-four architecture students form three different universities in Poland assessed daylight in 13 different classrooms. The questionnaire aimed to investigate relationships between daylight subjective assessment, students’ perception and daylight knowledge. This paper focuses only on the results of the subjective appraisal of daylit interior spaces and the objective evaluation of the investigated conditions. The simulations of Daylight Factor and Daylight Autonomy were carried out using various available software and the available climate and weather data (for DA). The key findings of the study are: Daylight appraisal part: (i) Daylight factor simulations results correspond with subjective students' assessments of daylight sufficiency within the rooms for eight out of 13 cases. (ii) The were no significant correlations found between the mean illuminances values and the subjective students' appraisals of daylight. The subjective description of daylight within the investigated classrooms was similar (medium) for all the sessions. (iii) The subjective perception of uniformity for task illumination was rated by observers as a medium, while the mean illuminance levels varied from 61 to 460 lx. Architectural training part: (iv) The use of advanced computer daylight simulations tools supports educational activities and aids architectural design, only if the students can comprehend the obtained results (v) Available informative packages should cover contemporary analysis daylight tools.

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