Members of the AIA Committee on the Environment know that design for health and well-being requires connecting interior environments to the world outside with intention and care. But do we really know what is going on in our bodies and minds when we look out a window? Lisa Heschong has long been captivated by this question and her brilliant new book, Visual Delight in Architecture: Daylight, Vision, and VIew (Routledge, 2021) explores in an entertaining, accessible, and thorough way the connections between daylight, views and human health and well-being. This delightful book will teach you more than you can imagine about the subject yet will leave you inspired to learn more.
Heschong is an architect, researcher, and the author of the classic Thermal Delight in Architecture (1979). For much of her career she has pursued her hypothesis that access to daylight and views has positive effects on building occupants. She and other colleagues have quantified the impact on school test scores, workplace productivity, retail sales and recovery time from illness.
The book is a well-choreographed journey full of stories that is cleverly organized around physiological, sensory, psychological, and spiritual qualities. Each part incorporates several chapters packed with discrete topics that are covered in a page or two. Important terms are highlighted and keyed to a glossary. The book rarely feels repetitive or too technical although some digressions may not be as fascinating to all readers as they were to me. Architects are generalists, so from the solar orientation of cities down to retinal rods and cones it’s all relevant. Heschong’s own professional research is woven into chapters covering different building types: schools, offices, retail, and healthcare. This research has already benefited design and policymaking, supplying evidence for decision-makers who insist on proof.
Designing a building around daylight and views is a complex endeavor. Ever- changing seasonal and diurnal solar patterns, climate and weather variations create a polyrhythmic visual environment that requires special tools to model and experience to interpret. This is not a book that explains how to model and predict daylight a building but it does explain factors to take into account. Designers will be well served with this rich background.
Heschong cites research extensively: a recent discovery of a retinal photoreceptor linked to melatonin and circadian rhythms; the link between views, “mind wandering” and creative thinking; benefits of nature contact; biophilia; attempts at simulating views with technology. She quotes Michael Pollan, Oliver Sacks, and Witold Ribczynski and pays homage to pioneers like William Lam and Richard Neutra. She is a keen observer. I especially enjoyed her enthusiasm for Matteo Pericoli’s drawings in “The City Out My Window” which include the window frame and mullions as a part of the view.
Providing building occupants with daylight and views is a public health imperative as well as a design challenge. There is much to be done, from more considerate urban design to opportunities in building renovation and re-programming, collection and documentation of case studies, development of tools and metrics, and educating the next generation of designers. Heschong notes that each successive generation acclimates to conditions it eventually considers “normal” (windowless schools anyone?) until our hardwired thirst for light and air demands better. The potential in the digital age for a downward ratchet of indoor environmental quality requires vigilance and advocacy from architects. We must demonstrate in our buildings what a strong connection to nature looks like.
Mark Rylander, AIA was 2004 Chair of AIA COTE. With William McDonough + Partners, he led some of the most innovative projects of the sustainable design movement. Mark is a trusted adviser, teacher, and writer with a lifelong interest in how light shapes our experience of architecture. He currently practices with Kennon Williams Landscape Studio in Charlottesville, Virginia.