Visual Delight in Architecture

Visual Delight in Architecture
Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2021
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780367563233

"Visual Delight in Architecture examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight illumination and window views within our buildings. It makes the case that appropriately timed exposure to daylight is essential to our health and well-being, tied to the very genetic foundations of our physiology and cognitive function. It then goes on to help the reader appreciate the subtlety, beauty and pleasures of well-daylit spaces and attractive window views, and how these are woven into the fabric of our daily sensory experiences, and determined by the design of our buildings, cities, and cultural perspectives. The book is written to engage and challenge a variety of readers, including all forms of building and urban designers, plus anyone interested in human health and wellbeing, from medical researchers to the occupants of all types of buildings. Examples range in detail from common everyday experiences to the latest findings in cognitive research. An important goal of the book is integration across perspectives, such as helping designers to become more comfortable with the scientific basis of their work, and scientists more curious about the design implications of their research"--

Thermal Delight in Architecture

Thermal Delight in Architecture
Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 100
Release: 1979-12-05
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262580397

Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design. Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed—reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience. As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.

Visual Delight in Architecture

Visual Delight in Architecture
Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2021-03-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1000378969

Visual Delight in Architecture examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight and window views within our buildings. It makes a compelling case that daily exposure to the rhythms of daylight is essential to our health and well-being, tied to the very genetic foundations of our physiology and cognitive function. It describes all the subtlety, beauty, and pleasures of well-daylit spaces and attractive window views, and explains how these are woven into the fabric of both our everyday sensory experience and enduring cultural perspectives. All types of environmental designers, along with anyone interested in human health and well- being, will fi nd new insights offered by Visual Delight in Architecture. The book is both accessible and provocative, full of personal stories and persuasive research, helping designers to gain a deeper understanding of the scientific basis of their designs, scientists to better grasp the real-world implications of their work, and everyone to more fully appreciate the role of windows in their lives.

Origins of Architectural Pleasure

Origins of Architectural Pleasure
Author: Grant Hildebrand
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1999-06-30
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780520215054

This engaging study discusses ways in which architectural forms emulate some archetypal settings that humans have found appealing--and useful for survival--from ancient times to the present. 119 photos. 6 line figures.

Light in Architecture

Light in Architecture
Author: Mireia Verges
Publisher: Tectum
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-03-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9789076886749

Light is the element that reveals architecture. It renders texture and materials, illuminates surfaces and spaces, and creates atmospheres. This idea book is a useful guide filled with creative lighting suggestions in full color photographs for those who understand and appreciates the main role both natural light and artificial lighting play in architecture, landscape and interior design.

The Architecture of Light

The Architecture of Light
Author: Mary Ann Steane
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1135655952

Reviewing the use of natural light by architects in the era of electricity, this book aims to show that natural light not only remains a potential source of order in architecture, but that natural lighting strategies impose a usefully creative discipline on design. Considering an approach to environmental context that sees light as a critical aspect of place, this book explores current attitudes to natural light by offering a series of in-depth studies of recent projects and the particular lighting issues they have addressed. It gives a more nuanced appraisal of these lighting strategies by setting them within their broader topographic, climatic and cultural contexts.

Daylight Performance of Buildings

Daylight Performance of Buildings
Author: Marc Fontoynont
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 847
Release: 2014-05-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1134257139

As part of Daylight Europe, the daylighting behaviour of 60 buildings was observed and measured during a three year period. Buildings of many different types, sizes and ages were included - from offices to museums, libraries, churches, houses, airports and factories; from Classical buildings to modern constructions, and from a small single room to an office of over 100,000 square meters. The results of the study of each building are presented, extensively illustrated in colour, with the unusual features and main lessons highlighted. The book also includes details of the monitoring procedures, the results of and comparisons with simulations, the outcome of post-occupancy evaluation, and a summary of the major findings. These show the extraordinary potential of daylighting techniques to improve amenity and energy performance for the benefit of the occupants and building managers. They also demonstrate how often opportunities are missed, and the frequency of problems of overheating or glare. Above all, they demonstrate the beauty, elegance and scope of daylight design.

Writing About Architecture

Writing About Architecture
Author: Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2012-02-29
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1616890533

Extraordinary architecture addresses so much more than mere practical considerations. It inspires and provokes while creating a seamless experience of the physical world for its users. It is the rare writer that can frame the discussion of a building in a way that allows the reader to see it with new eyes. Writing About Architecture is a handbook on writing effectively and critically about buildings and cities. Each chapter opens with a reprint of a significant essay written by a renowned architecture critic, followed by a close reading and discussion of the writer's strategies. Lange offers her own analysis using contemporary examples as well as a checklist of questions at the end of each chapter to help guide the writer. This important addition to the Architecture Briefs series is based on the author's design writing courses at New York University and the School of Visual Arts. Lange also writes a popular online column for Design Observer and has written for Dwell, Metropolis, New York magazine, and The New York Times. Writing About Architecture includes analysis of critical writings by Ada Louise Huxtable, Lewis Mumford, Herbert Muschamp, Michael Sorkin, Charles Moore, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Jane Jacobs. Architects covered include Marcel Breuer, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Field Operations, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Frederick Law Olmsted, SOM, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Daylight, Design and Place-Making

Daylight, Design and Place-Making
Author: Hisham Elkadi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2020-12-20
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317154665

Daylight, Design and Place-Making examines the role of daylight in creating and revealing the wonders of heritage and contemporary architecture. Shifting from a purely technical approach to daylighting, this book places importance on the creation of meaningful aesthetics through an understanding of context and culture. Cultural applications of light in architecture differ depending on various historical, technological, and social characteristics. Increasingly, there is a revival of interest in contemporary architecture using daylight as an essential contextual ingredient in the design process. By examining the architecture of daylight in different locales and setting these in their historical contexts, the book argues that appropriate use of daylight will ensure not only visual and thermal comfort in the urban setting and aid in energy efficiency, but also will contribute to the overall identity of new buildings, particularly in urban regeneration projects. This book brings together an analysis of technical aspects of daylight performance and environmental impact, with discussions on the psychology of daylighting and its influence in shaping perceptions of our built environment. It will be an ideal read for academics and researchers interested in architecture and cultural studies.

Light, Air & Openness

Light, Air & Openness
Author: Paul Overy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2007
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780500342428

This groundbreaking book examines the relationship between the modernist architecture of the 1920s and 1930s and that eras preoccupations with health, cleanliness, fresh air and sunshine, exploring how utopian notions of the clean machine and the hygienist movement inspired the pure geometric forms and sparkling surfaces of early modernist buildings. Anyone with an interest in architecture and/or modernism will find this original approach to a popular theme both engaging and enlightening.