Abstract

This PhD dissertation focuses on methods of daylight appraisal useful in the design of the contemporary multifamily housing. The theoretical part of the thesis offers a review of daylight indicators, evaluations methods and tools within the built environment. It covers a review of daylight recommendations found in building standards and other normative documents affecting the design of the residential spaces. A pilot work survey carried out among 140 architecture students aimed to verify students', perception, preferences on daylight as well as their knowledge about contemporary daylight metrics and assessment methods and regulations. The empirical part of the thesis presents the experiment focused on the appraisal of daylight conditions within 20 rooms spaces via on-site repeated luminance measurements, the questionnaire focusing on inhabitants' perception, preferences and satisfaction with the daylight conditions within their dwellings, and luminance, illuminance simulation. The obtained results are presented in numerical form and graphical notation, in the form of multi-coloured graphs - images. In the summary, the potential and level of difficulty of the presented daylight appraisal methods were assessed. The influence of normative documents on the design solutions affecting propagation of light in the multi-dwelling structures was described. The results confirm that the analysis and assessment of daylight is crucial at all stages of planning residential architecture. A well-thought-out design of daylight affects the perception of residential interiors by their users and impacts their quality of life.

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