Healthy-daylighting design for the living environment in apartments in Korea

Abstract

An essential part of an indoor environment design is to deliver both the visual task needed as well as a healthy lighting system. In this article, healthy residential environment is discussed as an architectural field of light. The development and consolidation of health promotion is presented focusing the discussion on two areas of action: providing healthy light and eliminating harmful light within apartments. In Korea, the possibility for occupants to spend a large amount of time in the sun without proper protection is growing since, many balconies have been eliminated and there is a preference for large windows with improper orientation for the opening. When a balcony as a visual buffer space is eliminated, the distance between occupants and balcony window becomes closer and thus, there is a lager glass area of the window in the field of human view. Eliminating the balcony also removes the overhang structure which works as an obstruction to block the excessive penetration of sunlight. This results in the advent of harmful light in quantitative and qualitative ways; too much light, uncomfortable glare, and UV penetration. This paper discusses issues related to light and healthy living environment. Initially, it deals with the establishment of all design elements in terms of light and surveys examples of current designs. Architectural and optical solutions both to attenuate the harmfulness of light and to improve the visual satisfaction are given issued and their performance is reviewed.