9 Ways Light and Windows Affect User Experience in Buildings.
This blog is about Ways in which Light and Window design can inform your thinking if you plan to rent, remodel an existing house or build a new house. We trust this insight will help you create a better living experience that is humane and alive.
- Indoor Sunlight: It is good to check out the orientation of the building with respect to the sun. A sunny room is a happy room! If the rooms are facing south, a house will be bright, well lit and cheerful. If the wrong rooms are facing south, the house shall be dark and gloomy. To achieve a better experience, let the outdoors face southwards
Orientation with respect to the Sun Path
- Rooms with bay windows tend to be more beautiful because they allow more light and help the room come alive by providing an alternative sitting space for family members while maintaining their presence and psychological connection with the rest of the family members. It is like an additional interactive space that compliments a family or living room. You may also consider having a slit window if you must have a solid wall.
Bay Window & Slit Window : The Minima House
- Go for rooms that have an elaborate window space. This could be a window seat, a wider window board, special ledge next to the window of an alcove that is on a wall recess covered with special glasses.
- Biologically, human beings are phototropic. You are more comfortable in light than in darkness and you tend to gravitate towards that side. However, one can play with the light to bring varying experience e.g. as one transitions from outdoor spaces to indoor spaces. Rooms feel less claustrophobic and lively with larger windows.
- High Level Windows: Where you have wall heights exceeding 3 Metres high e.g. for rooms with double volume, consider breaking the monotony with high level windows. Staircases are potential places for this since they vertically connect floors.
High Level Windows: Gatundu House and Zuri House
- Ease of Cleaning: Most kitchen windows that would be next to the cooker unit would be difficult to clean because of reach and oil film. See Annals of Bad Design: Stove Window
- A room which has no window place, in which the windows are just “holes”, is hopeless. A window should not only let in air but also visually allow occupants/users to connect with the outside world. The “energy” should flow
- Internal Windows: Sometimes you might have walls between rooms. Adding windows helps the rooms become more alive by creating more views of people and illuminating dark corners. Fully glazed fixed windows will do.
Internal Window: Gatundu House
- It is hard to talk to a silhouette. If you make the windows too large, at about a distance of 4 to 5metres, the person on the opposite side will not see facial expressions. Unfortunately, this mistake will only be noticed after the fact
