Imagining daylight: Evaluating participants' perception of daylight in work environments

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental research study intended to evaluate daylight perception in work environments. The current metrics for assessing daylight in work environments involve quantifying daylight and do not provide insight into the actual appearance of the space, thus overlooking the qualitative aspects of light and their effect on occupants. Conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM), a mixed methodology, was used to obtain participants' hierarchical knowledge structure and mental model of daylight in work environments. This method was selected to understand the end users' perception of an environment rather than measuring the physical environment. A cognitive map of 50 participants, half architects and half non-architects, was created using 3CM. The results present a list of daylight lexicon and a vast selection of concepts related to physical and psychological comfort among all participants. This experiment reveals that connectivity and emotional reactions are the two dominant underlying dimensions describing daylight in work environments. The results illustrate both similarities and disjunctions between two groups of participants regarding the selected daylight terms and characterizations. The results also indicate the need to augment current planning practices with a qualitative multi-disciplinary approach to create more pleasant working environments.