Windows are less glaring when there is a preferred view

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of view content as related to landscape preference on the sensation of discomfort. The study began with an investigation of the effect of the presence of a view on discomfort glare. The experiment was carried out in a laboratory investigating real views with 32 students as subjects. Following this, the effects of four factors related to landscape preference were investigated: complexity, coherence, mystery , and legibility. This study was done in a laboratory using small projected images representing real scenes with 24 subjects. The last experiment aimed to see the effect of view complexity and mystery. This was carried out in a real school classroom using 32 Thai students as subjects. The result showed that there is an important effect from the presence of a view on discomfort glare. The findings also suggested several significant effects on the sensation of glare discomfort, for example, view mystery, and view complexity. The experiments were conducted in the laboratories of the School of Architecture, the University of Shef-field. Subjects sat in an open cubicle facing a view that could be seen through an aperture, which acted as a glare source. The cubicle was half-hexagonal in plan; the interior surfaces were painted matt white internally. Stray light outside was masked. Subjects were positioned with their eyes at the centre of the opening. The size of the opening was 25 x 25 cm. One fixation point was used-the centre of the right-hand opening. Background luminance was provided by reflecting light off the surfaces in the subject's field of view. A luminaire connected with a dimmable transformer to adjust the light for source luminance was held constant for each person.