Light-Rhythms – Exploring effects of natural and artificial light and lighting from a Scandinavian perspective

Abstract

The dissertation is a compilation thesis of five papers plus a cover essay. My interest raises from the natural variability and quality of daylight in Scandinavia.

Through this work I wish to contribute to the question: "how do people feel and behave in an illuminated space?” This question includes the effect of light in space and its impact on human perception, affect, movement, acute or circadian responses and ultimately well-being. I study these responses using qualitative and quantitative methods from psychology and behavioural studies, and I use an integrative lighting design approach that combines artificial lighting and daylighting in architecture and the built environment. The thesis limits itself to indoor environments although some of the preliminary studies involved outdoor environments. My vision is that this work adds information to the specific piece of the puzzle of how a person works, moves and feels in day-lit spaces, specifically in the darker part of the year in Stockholm, Sweden, the time when the two experiments presented are set. The ambition is to contribute to the sustainability goals of the UN (UN-SDG - https://sdgs.un.org/), specifically to improve the well-being of the population (SDG 3), to design a built-environment that is safe and resilient (SDG 11) and uses affordable and clean energy (SDG 7).

The work presented here addresses features and issues pertaining to architecture, physiology, psychology and lighting design. Hopefully, with the limitations in mind, the new knowledge generated in this thesis will inspire designers, medical doctors and architects, so that through a multidisciplinary collaboration it will be possible to achieve better design of natural and artificial light rhythms.

For further information see Chapter 01 Introduction and Chapter 04 results in the link below.

https://kth-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/ffavero_ug_kth_se/EqX3mypMz4tIkE02VwkbcY0BKtL3vJmL7ExARKJbWrj3AQ?e=xN0EYr

The opponent will be Professor Yvonne de Kort, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.