Visual Comfort for a Healthy Indoor Environment in Design Studios: The Critical Role of the Building’s Orientation and Opening Ratio
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38027/jsalutogenic_vol3no1_4Keywords:
Day-lighting, window to wall ratio (WWR), Visual Comfort, Building’s OrientationAbstract
Daylight is one of the most important sources for enhancing human activity and improving well-being. The building’s orientation and opening area in the walls are significant factors in providing daylight. Ensuring a reasonable usage of daylight in design studio rooms at universities is a crucial task for architects during the design process, as it fosters a comfortable environment for users and enhances their functionality and visual health. This paper aims to reach a comprehensive understanding of the role of windows, or opening ratio, and the building's orientation in providing daylight into design studio rooms in universities in Erbil, Iraq. The research method of this study was to select two universities as case studies in the study area. The relationship between the intensity of the natural lighting and the satisfaction of the users has been determined in these rooms by testing the window-to-wall ratio and investigating the effect of the building's orientation on the visual comfort in the rooms. For this purpose, a questionnaire method has been applied to the students who are using these rooms. The results demonstrated that the window ratio with the window side location plays a key role in the development of visual comfort inside the design studios at the universities in Erbil.
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