Daylight regulation compliance of existing multi family apartment blocks in Sweden
Abstract This research investigates the daylight regulation compliance of existing multi family housing developments located primarily in Stockholm (Lat. 59,33 degN) Sweden. A representative sample of 54 buildings consisting of 10.888 individual rooms was modelled according to archived documentation drawings and evaluated by use of Radiance simulations, to test their compliance with the current Swedish daylight regulation. The studied buildings were selected according to their relevance to major architectural typologies of Swedish urban planning history (1926 1991) The assessment was based on a point Daylight Factor scheme (DFP) which stipulates that a specific point in a room should achieve a Daylight Factor DFP 1% for the room to be sufficiently daylit. Results indicate that specific architectural typologies consistently yield poor DFP levels compared to other ones. A moderate correlation was found between the density of surroundings and the percentage of compliant rooms per housing development. Finally, the results indicate the existence of distinct periods during Swedish urban planning history, when daylight performance of multi family houses was affected by different planning practices. Future investigations are under development to evaluate the occupants' perception of daylight in their apartments, to help define new daylight performance indicators and benchmarks for Swedish households, taking into consideration the limitations of the daylight indicator embedded in the current regulation.
Building and Environment