This book examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight illumination and window views within our buildings. It 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.
"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"--
Lisa Heschong is an architect and founding principal of the Heschong Mahone Group (HMG), a building sciences consulting firm, where she led groundbreaking research showing a relationship between daylight and student test scores, retail sales, and office worker performance. Heschong is the author of the classic Thermal Delight in Architecture, along with many technical publications about daylighting and energy effi ciency in buildings. A graduate of UC Berkeley and MIT, she is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), and received the ARCC 2012 Haecker Award for Architectural Research. Heschong lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband, two horses, and a sailboat, where she never tires of watching the changing colors of the surrounding ocean and sky.
"We need this book now more than ever because we spend more time indoors now than at any point in human history. With Visual Delight in Architecture, Heschong redirects our gaze and reimagines what it means to create truly humane indoor environments. Every person desires a view to the outdoors to satiate their appetite for light. This is a fundamental human need and its provision should be a basic human right..."
Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, PhD, Director, Institute for Health in the Built Environment; Professor of Architecture, University of Oregon
"Architects, and anyone, interested in creating a more humanitarian world need to read this book, immediately! As the preeminent architect who demonstrated how daylit buildings can improve learning, working and selling, Lisa Heschong brings us up to date with added attention to views. Skillfully synthesizing research, literature, and design imperatives, Heschong summarizes why both daylight and views are needed in our buildings to better serve all building occupants, our society, and the future of the planet."
Margo Jones, FAIA, NCARB, LEED-AP, Founding Partner, Jones Whitsett Architects, Massachusetts
