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courses

ARCH6942-1 / Fall 2025

Elliot Glassman

Daylight, Metabolism

Canvas

Architecture appears for the first time when the sunlight hits a wall. The sunlight did not know what it was before it hit a wall.” - Louis I. Kahn

Access to natural light is so essential to human health and wellbeing, regulating our circadian rhythm and stimulating physiological responses that improve our mental and physical states. As a design element, daylight is an architectural form-giver and a way of ordering spaces, it provides visual interest and the appropriate atmosphere for the interior environment.

This course will review the benefits of daylight in buildings in various typological contexts and provide students with the tools for designing with daylight. Daylight design strategies will be explored for providing the appropriate amount of illumination of various space types while preventing visual discomfort and blocking unwanted direct sun. Various metrics for measuring daylight levels will be explored and put into context of building performance rating system frameworks.

Students will learn how daylight analysis software can be utilized in conjunction with parametric analysis integrated to shape the architectural response. Case studies of integrated daylight design processes from professional practice will be shown; project examples will come from various climates and project typologies. Students will be able to choose a standalone daylight project or complement their studio design work with daylight analysis to inform design choices.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES • Identify the importance of daylight in buildings as a design element, for offsetting lighting energy use, and as a promoter of occupant satisfaction and wellbeing. • Learn passive and active daylighting strategies as pertains to building design. • Understand physical and computationally based methods to study daylight in buildings during design phases, as well as the metrics to quantify daylight performance. • Describe ways of applying daylight simulation to support the architectural design process.

Location & Time

200 Buell North

TH 7 PM - 9 PM

Session & Points

Full Semester

3 Points

Sequence

Building Science & Technology Elective

Call Number

10706

Programs

Master of Architecture

M.S. Advanced Architectural Design

New York / Paris

M.S. Historic Preservation

M.S. Real Estate Development

M.S. Architecture and Urban Design

M.S. Urban Planning

M.S. Computational Design Practices

Other Semesters & Sections

Course	Semester	Title	Student Work	Instructor	Syllabus	Requirements & Sequence	Location & Time	Session & Points	Call No.
A6942‑1	Fall 2024	Daylight, Metabolism		Elliot Glassman		Building Science & Technology Elective	115 AVERY TU 7 PM - 9 PM	FULL SEMESTER 3 Points	10591
ARCH6942‑1	Fall 2023	Daylight, Metabolism		Elliot Glassman		Building Science & Technology Elective	115 AVERY TU 7 PM - 9 PM	FULL SEMESTER 3 Points	10311