Students’ Perception of the Natural Daylighting in Higher Education Design Studios

Abstract

An energy-efficient and environmentally friendly building are key to establishing green buildings. Both key concepts are predominantly significant in today's sustainable development concept. Higher education institutions have started their green and sustainable campaign to meet the government's initiative to reduce energy consumption. Energy consumption is increasing annually, whereby for the past 10 years, energy usage in government buildings has increased from 50,000 GW to 109,000 GW per year. The electricity bills increased due to the extensive use of artificial light. Artificial lighting is used extensively during the daytime in higher education buildings due to poor passive daylighting strategies in many buildings. Therefore, this paper intends to present the findings of a comprehensive and systematic analysis of students’ perceptions of natural daylight in design studios in higher education buildings. Survey-based investigations were conducted to analyse the student's perception of natural daylight. 149 questionnaires were distributed to Interior Design students from higher educational institutions. The data is being analysed using statistical analysis with the use of SPSS as the tool for analysis. The research found that the respondents prefer brighter natural daylight to artificial lighting in the studio. However, their design studio receives a high glare and thermal heat. The high glare and thermal heat subsequently made the respondents feel inconvenienced and uncomfortable due to glare and heat gain. As this paper only provides students' perceptions about natural daylight in the design studio, further study is needed to identify types of daylight strategies used in the design studio.