Ashley Olsen sat cross-legged on her dorm bed at Stony Brook University. Exhausted from working her Saturday morning shift at CVS, she spent thirty minutes continuing to look over the next morning’s shifts, and discuss physician’s assistant programs while comparing scrubs uniform colors with her suitemate.
For another thirty minutes, the 19-year-old biology student tried to relax with several rounds of video games and an unsuccessful attempt at a nap.
Finally, she lept off her bed and opened her curtains allowing the sunlight to fill the room. She briefly stood in front of the window for a couple of minutes before climbing back onto her bed and facing her window.
“Much better. I don’t know how to explain it,” Olsen said, pointing to the light coming from her window.
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“It just makes me feel better.”
Ashley Olsen, Stony Brook biology student
The exhilarating effects of natural light can be felt in any environment, from a house’s dining room to a college dorm room. When it comes to college architecture, one of the significant facets of school design is the use of natural lighting.
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Classrooms and lecture halls that natural light can help with students’ alertness and retention rates, according to a 2016 study published in the International Journal of Advances in Chemical Engineering and Biological Sciences. Researchers Nastaran Shishegar and Mohamed Boubekri evaluated how the light was used in college settings and concluded that “natural light can improve subjective mood, attention, cognitive performance, physical activity, sleep quality, and alertness in students and workers.”
When campus spaces such as libraries incorporate natural light, users are satisfied, but additional factors that come from natural light like daylight glare and intensity can have negative effects, possibly decreasing one’s productivity and energy, found another 2018 study published in the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research.
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Market research agency Arizton predicted
the daylighting market
will see a compound annual growth rate of 6%
with between 2020 and 2025.
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The introduction of a green element of architecture
like natural light might be gaining
popularity as colleges make their
push toward becoming green campuses and
could replace one of the most popular lighting
technologies used in schools---fluorescent lighting.
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Shining A Light on College Architecture
University of Kentucky
Courtesy of CBS Newspath
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University of Kentucky
Courtesy of CBS Newspath
Scientific articles with studies conducted by architectural and design researchers show that indoor environments that incorporate designs of ample light can have an influence on students.
Natural light can shape student performance and perception of their schools and how they interact with them, but the concept needs more exploration.
By Deidre Redhead
Many colleges across the country implement natural lighting on their campuses.
Markets Insider reports company Arizton predicts a daylighting domination in the global market.
Since the 1950s, the familiar flickering of fluorescent lights has been the standard of lighting in educational buildings. While artificial lighting is cheaper, the mental and health implications of these lights can be harmful
for students.
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Artificial light is not going away anytime soon, so colleges must make a decision between slashing energy costs and students’ satisfaction.