ABSTRACT
From bright to dim, the way spaces are lit changes our experience of indoor environments. Visual comfort, which has been defined as a subjective condition of well-being induced by the visual environment, is a significant consideration in the design of architectural spaces. Indeed, visual comfort can impact occupants’ satisfaction, productivity, and well-being whilst they perform their day-to-day activities, including playing, learning, working, cooking, and others. While architects and designers have developed numerous design techniques and strategies to achieve better visual comfort, researchers have also made great progress and proposed a variety of metrics characterising visual comfort using physical quantities, such as the amount of light. This chapter first reviews factors that influence visual comfort indoors, followed by insight into the effects of visual comfort or discomfort on occupants. Some metrics that have previously been proposed are also introduced in this chapter, with the aim of providing ways to quantitatively predict and evaluate the visual comfort of an architectural space. The limitations in generalising existing metrics to different contexts in the real world are further discussed. Recently, the study of visual comfort has expanded into a new dimension, which relates to the non-image-forming effects on human circadian rhythms, and consequently influences productivity and well-being. This new expanding dimension is also discussed in this chapter. Finally, this chapter provides a sneak peek into the future, by focusing on advanced technologies and strategies to improve visual comfort indoors, including intelligent lighting systems, smart windows, and design optimisation algorithms.
