Light is the medium that makes visual perception possible. The main source of natural light in our planet is the sun, and it provides us with the energy needed for life. Besides the sun, the moon and the stars light up the Earth to some extent but not sufficiently enough to do usual modern-day activities as well as to maintain life on earth. In line with human life style improvement, artificial light has become a crucial moment for the modern lifestyle. However, nowadays humanity is facing an ever-growing urban sprawl; which favours a lot of times spent indoors. In this respect, there is a growing interest for the introduction of natural light to buildings. Therefore, there are numerous benefits of natural light usage, especially from the sustainability point of view, the impact on the environment and human health.
The main hurdle in natural light employment for lighting interior spaces is how to bring it to spaces which are not visible from the external structure such as rooms without exterior walls. There are several principles which offer a solution to overcome this problem; however, they may not be as effective as needed, and are highly dependent on the building structure. In this thesis work, buildings will be divided into two main categories such that the suggested solutions will rely strongly on the building’s category. The first category to be considered is single floor buildings. The second type will be multi floor buildings, which will start from two floors and more. Therefore, solutions for both building types will be considered.
This thesis is aimed to consider options for interior space lighting by natural light and pointing out their benefits as a result. The types of lighting fixtures and their effects when used in interior space designs will be analysed. The suggested solution for single floor and multi-floor buildings to bring natural light inside them is by installing a system consisting of a collector placed on the roof, which transmits the light into the building through a system of pipes and fibre-optics. The designed system can supply to each room between 11000-65000 lux. A cost analysis of the system was done and compared to previously available solutions. Moreover, different implementation techniques will be discussed and a comparison between different methods will be presented. In the end, suggestions on how natural lighting can be used to maximize the benefits from using such a system like reducing ruining cost of buildings and saving the environment will be discussed as well.
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