Daylight in indoor environments, analysis on daylight influence on energy performances and human well-being

In a scenario of energetic and climatic crises, every possible action finalized to a reduction of energy consumption is needed. In this context the daylight harvesting is assuming an always growing crucial role in building design, especially in offices, where the occupational profile is almost coincident with sunny hours. In this thesis work, an attempt has been made to demonstrate the benefits of the correct implementation of daylight in building lighting, through the application of parameters and metrics imposed by the Italian standards. The work has been organized starting from a theoretical introduction ending in an application case. In the first part they have been evaluated energy implications of daylight, in terms of benefits and drawbacks. Successively, a look has been taken on human well-being implications with daylight. In the following steps the concept of daylighting has been introduced, keeping an eye on the Italian historical evolution of architecture towards natural light and how standard have been introduced to harness the know-how in the best way possible. After the introducing part, an analysis on and existing building of offices has been made by means the software Climate Studio by Solemma, a Rhinoceros 3D plug-in that allows daylight simulation on 3D models. The analyses have been made on a typical floor plan, in which 10 particularly significant offices have been selected on exposition, relevance or dimension basis. Taking in consideration the results, some hypotheses have been made to maximize the beneficial effects of daylight introduced in the first paragraphs.