Perception of spatial volume in daylight entering through devised openings

Sammanfattning: The thesis examines the impact of perceived brightness and contrast balance in relation to the spatial volume; physical volume transforming into a perceived volume in light. Two static viewpoints of 20th century’s museum architecture have been tested to observe qualitative features in daylight entering through architecturally devised openings. Anders Liljefors’s “7 parameters of light” based on visual-physical theory and James Gibson’s perception factors relating to our visual field help evaluate the perceived qualities. The thesis directs towards understanding relationship of brightness and contrast perception with the perceived color of space and spaciousness of the architectural volumes. Individual experiment with physical mock-up replicating the spatial volumes in contextual sun altitudes as well as visual representation of analyzing perceptual parameters have been documented and discussed. Also, methodology includes a collective evaluation surveying observers’ perception of “lighting features” and “spatial features” seeing the fish-eye images of the viewpoints as if looking into the physical mock-up. The comparative analysis in this research is an attempt to contemplate qualitative observation tool as an objective reference in relation to the subjective experience for architectural lighting design process. The investigation follows case studies of two exhibition spaces designed by architects - Carlo Scarpa and Louis Kahn addressing both diffuse skylight and direct sunlight entering through architecturally devised openings.