Daylighting in older people’s housing: A guide for housing and design professionals and architects

December 2015

Alan Lewis, University of Manchester

This guide highlights the power of design for daylighting to improve the lives of people with sight loss. Primarily for architects and housing and design professionals, this guide funded by Thomas Pocklington Trust provides good practice guidance on daylighting in older people’s housing.

Key facts:

• Daylight generally provides much greater light levels than domestic electric lighting, which can be beneficial to some people with sight loss.
• As people with visual impairments are sensitive to light and glare, it is important that occupants have the means to control the daylight coming into their home.
• It can be difficult for older people to receive adequate exposure to strong daylight, as people over 65 and those over 85 spend 80% and 90% of their time at home respectively.
• The daylight factor is a unit of measurement that is used to quantify the amount of daylight in a room.

How can this research help?

This guide will be invaluable to architects as well as housing and design professionals concerned with daylighting for people with sight loss. A handy checklist is included, setting out criteria and advice for good daylighting.

Links:

Daylighting in Older People’s Housing: A Guide for Housing and Design Professionals – PDF version and Word version.