Turkish D-light : accentuating heritage values with daylight

Al-Maiyah, S; Elkadi, HA

Abstract

Historic buildings have their own cultural identity, which is often related to their aesthetic qualities such as period
characteristics (geometry, size, colour, form and shape), materials and construction. Daylight is one of the primary
elements contributing to the distinctiveness of the visual environment of many historic buildings, but is rarely
considered as one of the components that shape the character of a building when adaptive preservation schemes of
historical buildings are planned. Many historic buildings were originally designed to accommodate activities different to
their new use and preserving the quality of daylight that originally contributed to their visual identity is a challenging
task. Maintaining the ‘day-lit appearance’ of a building can be particularly problematic if the building is to be used as a
museum or a gallery owing to the artefacts’ conservation requirements. This work investigated the opportunities of
maintaining the original ambient conditions of renovated historical buildings while meeting the required daylight levels
of the proposed new use. The study utilised an annual daylight simulation method and hourly weather data to preserve
daylight conditions in renovated historic buildings. The model was piloted in a Turkish bathhouse situated in Bursa,
Turkey, that is currently under renovation. The simulation model produces 4483 hourly values of daylight illuminance
for a period of a whole year using the computer program Radiance. It is concluded that daylight characteristics should
be taken into account when developing a renovation scheme. With increasing pressure on valuing historic buildings in
many parts of the world, the work reported here should be beneficial to those concerned with the conservation and
adaptive reuse of historic buildings. The study findings could also be useful to those interested in predicting potential
energy savings by combining daylighting and electric lighting in historic buildings.

Citation

Al-Maiyah, S., & Elkadi, H. (2015). Turkish D-light : accentuating heritage values with daylight. Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering History and Heritage, 168(4), 139-149. https://doi.org/10.1680/jenhh.15.00004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 3, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2015
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jul 6, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 1, 2016
• Journal: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Engineering History and Heritage
• Print ISSN: 1757-9430
• Electronic ISSN: 1757-9449
• Publisher: Thomas Telford
• Volume: 168
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 139-149
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1680/jenhh.15.00004
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jenhh.15.00004
• Related Public URLs: http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/journal/jenhh