Daylighting blends sustainable design techniques, industrial psychology and ergonomics, and environmental awareness to create usable spaces that connect people to the outside world while reducing their energy demands. Using carefully placed windows, traditional skylights, and tubular skylights, designers meet a building’s needs with natural light while avoiding glare. Precise management of electric lights allows the building to use energy efficiently between dusk and dawn. Improvements in both design technology and materials available make daylighting more effective than the older style of passive solar architecture that appeared after World War II. A study conducted by the Energy Center of Wisconsin and the Energy Resource Station revealed that properly designed rooms saved more than 20 percent in operating costs when compared with the standard rooms used as controls.
The Daylighting Collaborative, a consulting group based in Wisconsin, provides training, design services, advice on materials and purchasing, and links to a wide range of organizations and producers involved in the movement. Its rather poetic vision statement–”Light every building using the sky”–encompasses an institutional philosophy that sees cooperation between artists, researchers, and designers as a means of preserving resources and creating more personable functional spaces.
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. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
