Daylighting
Upper Floors
Roof monitors and
other forms of top-lighting, such as skylights, roof monitors and sawtooth
roofs, are particularly applicable to Santa Monica because the majority
of buildings are low-rise. In addition to daylighting, operable roof
monitors provide excellent opportunities for natural ventilation while
avoiding traffic noise problems.
Top-lighting provides
interior light that is significantly different from that provided by
windows:
- It can provide
relatively uniform light distribution throughout a space.
- It is often easy
to integrate with electric lighting because light originates from
the ceiling in both cases.
Roof monitors can
be designed to admit daylight and sunlight, although sunlight is difficult
to control and best avoided:
- Make the roof
aperture between 4% to 8% of the floor area.
- Shape the roof
monitor to admit only daylight from the north.
- Consider integrating
photovoltaic collectors on south-facing sides of the monitor.
- Splay the walls
and use matte white reflecting surfaces around the monitor to improve
light distribution and reduce glare.
- If a view of
the sky is not critical, use diffusing glass to give better distribution
of light.
Cautions
- Avoid using horizontal
skylights, which result in excessive solar gains in summer.
- Brighter sky
visible through skylights can cause glare problems.
