Natural Lighting & Ventilation – An Alternative Design Approach
In the present day, a basic requirement for a residence design is to give utmost importance to good ventilation & natural lighting for the internal spaces. The exterior design elements like the windows, skylights etc. with controlled admission of natural light brings the required amount of natural lighting and ventilation into our home. An effective design can reduce the usage of artificial lighting and air conditioning requirements which in turn helps in saving energy by reducing the energy consumption.
The shape, size, orientation and position of the apertures are to be decided based on the specific site conditions and they need to be considered in the design phase. Some of the effective parameters that govern these are the site orientation, building footprint, the surrounding environment, etc. In the present urban context with the congested surrounding, we might not find the required orientation and position of the aperture for perfect lighting and ventilation. In order to achieve the same we might need to increase the size of the windows or the area of wall openings and design proper shading elements.
In such scenarios, the surrounding environmental parameters can help us in our selection between a huge window and horizontal strip windows with shading elements. In some case the horizontal strip windows with small shading elements can bring in more amount of light without direct sun and keeping our privacy intact. A huge window with varying shutter designs, like a combination of transparent, semi-transparent and opaque panels can help in controlling the direct sun and give good ventilation. The shading elements can also act as an obstruction to direct sun and can guide the air flow too. The vertical and horizontal louvers, perforated panels, jali blocks etc. can act as shading elements in front of huge windows and they need to be selected and designed with the site specific parameters.
Surag Viswanathan Iyer
Principal Architect
Eminence Architects [Research + Design]
Tripunithura
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +91 9895347562