SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION
Introduction to the qualities of daylight is recognized to have many qualities that are not easy
to accomplish with electrical light. The reasons for working with daylight improvements in
buildings as following:
• Reduced energy consumption.
• Benefits to human health and well-being.
• Better appearance of the space.
• Provides a connection to the location, the weather outside and time of the day. To this can
be added:
Good colour rendering is an obvious element to emphasize when
evaluating museum lighting. Some more subtle elements related to the use of daylight include
the appearance of the space, the orientation to the surroundings outside the building, and
human well-being, all of which contribute to positive experiences of the museum visitor.
Research shows that people prefer offices with windows instead of offices without windows
and that good daylight conditions reduce sick leave for employees. Classrooms with windows
have been shown to have a positive influence on reducing the stress levels of children.
Human well-being is one of the non-visual effects of daylight. Daylight influences our
circadian rhythm through the human hormone production (more specifically the suppression
of melatonin production) and this influences our level of alertness. Another non-visual aspect
of daylight is that the colour of the light and the position of the sun gives us references to the
time of the day and the weather conditions outside. Daylight is recognized to have both visual
and non-visual effects. With a good use of daylight, the museum experience can be improved
for both museum guests and museum employees. 1.1.2 Introduction to top lit and side lit
rooms The way in which the daylight enters a room can be divided into two different
categories. Top lit (roof windows or “sky lights”) or side lit. Top lit rooms receive more light
than side lit rooms with the same window size. The character of top lit windows is that they
face the light source, the sky, at a 180° angle. That gives more light and a very even
horizontal distribution of light throughout the space. The distribution of top lit daylight onto
the wall is characterized by more light on the upper part of the wall than on the lower part of
the wall. With proper design a very even light distribution can be achieved at “exhibition
height” (one to two meters above the ground). Rooms on the top floor of a building can be
provided with roof windows. 3 Side lit windows can be made in any room facing at least one
of the facades of the building. The depth of a building has a major influence on the
penetration of the daylight into the building. Side lit rooms are characterized by greater
amounts of light close to the windows and less light that reaches the core of the building. Side
lit rooms have an uneven distribution of light on the horizontal surface in the room. The
geometry of the windows is also of great importance. The size of the windows has influence
on the amount of daylight entering the room. The height of the window and the window sill,
have influence on how deep the
daylight is penetrating the building (Meek and Wymelenberg, 2015). There are many
examples of museums specially designed with the purpose of using the qualities of daylight.
Architects and lighting designers have put a great deal of thought into the orientation of the
building and the placement of the apertures such as windows and glass doors. Top lighting is
a strategy typically used when buildings are specially designed for the purpose of housing a
museum. Other techniques used are the orientation of the building and the use the qualities
from the northern light. As previously mentioned in the quote by Vitruvius, northern light is
stable and indirect daylight is suitable for picture galleries.

TERM RELATED TO THE TOPIC

What is daylight?
In this thesis, the definition of the natural light put forth by Boyce (2014) will be used. “The
natural light is light received on the earth from the sun, either directly or after reflection from
the moon” (page 28). Although natural light is a more precise phrase, whenever the term
daylight is used in this context, it is the equivalent of natural light as defined above.
What is a museum?
The word museums seem obvious to most museum guests. But an essential part of being a
museum is having a collection. Typical art halls do not have their own collections. In this
thesis, the phrase museum describes any space that is used permanently or temporarily to
show art or cultural history objects to an audience, no matter if the objects shown are owned
by the exhibiting place or not.
What are museum standards?
There are several different organizations defining light standards for museums. To mention a
few, there is International Council of Museums (ICOM), Illuminating Engineering Society
(IES), the British organization The Society of Light and Lighting, and there are the European
standard DS/EN 12464-1. In Denmark, there is the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces,
under the Ministry of Culture, which states guidelines for lighting at museum who are
financially supported by the Danish state. The guidelines they use refer to research by
Thomson (1986). In most office buildings, there is a need for light levels in task areas
between 50 and 5000 lux according to DS/EN 12464-1. Those light levels are too high to
fulfil preservation requirements. For museum standards, light levels are restricted to between
50 and 200 lux for light sensitive works. Thomson (1986). Furthermore, restrictions are given
for the amount of time light sensitive works are exposed to light.
What are light sensitive works?
Light sensitive works are any artefact that can be exhibited and that is changed in appearance
by photochemical deterioration due to light exposure.
According to Shaw (2015), typical categories include:
Irresponsive to light: stone, metal, enamel
Low responsive to light: painted surfaces, ivory, wood, lacquer
Medium responsive to light: paper works, photos, fabric
High responsive to light: watercolors, silk, newspaper
HISTORY
Evolution of museum architecture
The first museum of the world open to the public is considered to be the Capitoline
Museums. In 1471, Pope Sixtus IV donated a group of ancient bronze sculptures for the
people of Rome. The collections formed later a group of art and archaeological museums.6
However, it was in the 18th century when most public museums were founded, including the
Louvre and the British Museum. Regarding architecture, the majority of these museums were
housed in buildings whose primary function at the time of construction was different (often
were formerly palaces).
The typological structure of these buildings had an effect on the exhibition of artefacts. With
major rooms being connected and long hallways, it created a linear continuity on the sequence
of viewing. It was not until 1779, when the first purpose-built public museum opened its
doors in Germany. It was museum Fridericianum in Kassel, designed by architect Simon
Louis du Ry.7 Although constructed as a pioneer building, it was essentially designed as a
modification of palace design.

Figure 3 - Pietro Antonio Martini, Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787

These early museums relied on natural light for their exhibition spaces. During the day,
natural light would enter the galleries through windows and roof openings. In most cases, the
repetitive rhythm of big openings in the facades created uniform light for the interior,
illuminating sufficiently paintings and sculptures that were the primary display objects. The
appearance of the objects would alter throughout the day, depending on how natural light was
directed by the architecture of the space. It was in 1857, when the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London was the first museum to use
artificial light in the galleries, changing the future of museum lighting forever.8 Museums
became more accessible to the public; with gas and electric lighting introduced into the
galleries, museums could also extend their opening hours to the evening.

With the beginning of the 20th century many new museums were established, not only in
Europe but throughout the world. However, during the second half, the first researches on
light damage to exhibits started to be conducted, resulting to many museums turning to
artificial lighting as the main source of illumination and even excluding natural light. In 1945
an IES (US) report suggested that: “Natural lighted galleries are now technically obsolete for
most types of exhibit, and are likely to dwindle in the future. No satisfactory combination of
natural and artificial lighting for art galleries is possible, as the natural partner in the
combination varies widely in chromaticity and quantity, from day to day, and season to
season, and frequently will change in both color and quantity in a matter of minutes.”9
However, museum architecture successfully continued to integrate daylighting design in
museum galleries, responding to the guidelines for conservation and ensuring the optimum
display conditions for artworks. New types of collections were introduced and more spaces
were added to the functional program, such as libraries, lecture halls, cafeterias etc. Museum
designing became a very demanding field of architecture and aimed to recreate a cultural
experience. Along with the construction of new buildings, still many historic buildings were
being adapted to housing museums. Architects developed museums with sophisticated
daylight design and an attempt to improve viewing conditions.

Figure 4 – Kimbell Art Museum, Texas / Architect: Louis Kahn

NEED OF STUDY
Lighting is a critical component in a museum environment because the space enables visitors
to see objects, experience new sights and react to the surrounding environment. Typically,
environments have two types of light–natural and artificial. For a museum, the role of light is
an essential part of creating an atmosphere prime for discovery, while also preserving
artefacts.

AIM
The purpose is to use daylight efficiently in the museum building envelop.

OBJECTIVE

 To study the techniques of natural lighting in museum

 To show a relationship between light and built space

SCOPE &LIMITATION
The use of light is related to geometrical shapes, colours, and many things. The concept
of light can give lot of scope to think and achieve the functional spaces more lively and with
lot of expression.
Use of light in architecture is a very vast topic and extent of research will have to be defined.
This can be a very difficult balancing act between meeting preservation needs and
forming interactive experiences that achieve the goal of the museum integrating with se of
light.

IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY

S.no Name Location Site Area Special Characteristics
1. MIHO Museum Japan - War
2. Virasat-e-Khalsa Punjab 100 acre Built Form

Methods of natural lighting

The basic strategies of natural lighting can be broadly classified into two categories:
1. Side lighting
2. Top lighting

1. Side lighting: The windows in the sidewalls of the gallery provide side lighting. Its strategies rely
on apertures located in building’s perimeter walls and it is also dependent upon the orientation of
the building. Depending upon the need and use of space these windows may be placed at a high
level or normal level. Windows on one side give unilateral light whereas the windows on two sides
give bilateral lighting. This type of lighting is preferable for sculptures. However there is a possibility
of glare and reflection by use of this lighting which can be difficult to avoid.

2. Top lighting: In this system of lighting, the daylight access through roof top apertures. These are
not dependent on the orientation of the building façade and are effective for lighting single storey or
low-rise building. One of the most prominent examples of the use of skylight is the dome feature
used in Islamic architecture. In this type of lighting system, the light is evenly distributed over the
floor instead of the wall, where it is needed. This source of light can be effectively used by
introducing the diffusing glass or louvers to reduce the impact of glare. This type of lighting is useful
for improved illumination and superior light quality with better color and rendition.

Building form and daylight

Like most building types, the development of architectural form for museums and art galleries was
influenced by specific illumination criteria. The initial criteria of these spaces were based on
maximizing the collection of available daylight while minimizing the need for windows which
reduced valuable display space and produced reflected glare. The resulting daylight delivery systems
that were adopted to respond to these needs can be characterized by three solutions: clerestory
windows, light wells and skylights. Though every building and site location is different, the impact of
these building forms on illuminance distributions, luminance ratio and brightness ratio are different.

Techniques for natural lighting

Window

There are many ways today to direct daylight and “lock out” direct sunlight even in room with lateral
windows. Windows reduce the amount of wall space for exhibits. Undirected and unfiltered incident
light through window can give reflections on exhibition walls. In many ways, windows are the most
problematic daylight introducing building form. Even if illuminance is controlled, the outside view
will force the eye to adapt to luminance much higher than the displayed material. Finally, the
reflections of the windows in display cases, works under glass, glazed objects, and paintings with
varnish, can greatly reduce object perception and understanding. From my perspective there is no
practical way to maintain favorable viewing conditions at conservation light levels in a gallery with
windows. As noted earlier, shades and scrims are a last-ditch solution to an existing problem, and
should not be considered as an acceptable solution for new construction.
 Fig. I Techniques of lighting

The figures above show different modern techniques. These techniques are usually adopted in
museum design. Light has a characteristic of reflection. Light is reflected in different smooth surfaces
and required degree of intensity is captured.

Luminous ceiling (interior translucent glazing typically located under a skylight)

The traditional translucent laylight ceiling model is characterized by overpowering luminances at the
ceiling. This approach can also allow large amounts of unwanted solar gain into a building envelope
during the day in most seasons, and radiate heat loss at night causing a severe energy penalty.
Reflections of the luminous ceiling plane can create reflected glare and difficult viewing conditions
for large paintings with varnish and any glazed surface that reflects an image of the ceiling back to
the viewer.

In a museum design, natural lighting alone cannot create much pleasing effect. So, we also need to
talk about artificial lights also. There is no any existence of natural light without artificial light.
Because, it is said that there is no physical presence of dark, it is only the absence of light. So while
talking about museum, we should talk about artificial as well as natural lightings.

Skylight

Skylights are classic day lighting elements for picture galleries. Uniform diffused light can be
provided by skylight. No shadows or least shadow is produced by this technique because light is
spread over large area resulting in the production of soft light. Light from this technique can reach
nearly every part of the room including free standing displays, cabinets, sculptures and partitions.
Rooms and display areas are illuminated by skylight which reduces in the number of windows.
Because of less windows are present, more wall spaces is available for paining. There is also no
problem with the reflection on exhibition walls due to incident daylight from the side.

There is a risk, for example, of light being unevenly distributed over the walls, in rooms with dark
furnishings in particular, the vertical illuminance at eye level is often too low. The contrast between
wall and ceiling brightness can cause glare. And even with light from above, reflection can occur
sometimes on pictures on wall.

The use of skylight is confined to the upper storey’s of a building or calls for single storey design.
Skylights are no substitute for the visual contact with the outside world provided by windows.