Enhancing Users’ Comfort in Existing University Libraries in Egypt Through Daylight Strategies

Abstract

University libraries are one of the most important places that offer knowledge, services and a suitable study environment. A well-designed library space can have a great impact on students' performance and social behavior. Daylighting is a controlled tool that affects the perception, visual, psychological comfort, and behavior of library users. However, many of the current university libraries in Egypt lack the presence of efficient daylighting strategies and without consideration of how daylight affects students' comfort. The group study area, social gathering space, and private reading space are three different areas in the academic library with different usage and different daylight distribution. This research aims to identify a set of design strategies for using daylight to enhance users' psychological condition, interaction with the surrounding, and visual comfort in private reading space, group study space, or a social space, in the university libraries. The research method will be based on four phases starting with analyzing the different strategies of daylight in a space. Followed by discussing the aspects of daylight that influence human visual and psychological condition. Then, analyzing each space in the academic library by understanding its different usage, daylight distribution, and effect on student perception and comfort. Finally, deducting a design method that will be used a checklist (matrix) to identify different sittings of daylight strategies in different library spaces. The expected result will be deducted from the design matrix to identify a set of efficient daylight strategies for selected spaces in academic libraries to enhance user's visual comfort, psychological condition, and interaction with the surrounding.