Bringing Daylight Deep Inside Spaces:

A three-part blog on great skylights 

Part 1 - HLB Lighting Design enhances viewing of Art at Museo de Ponce with Skylighting

Natural daylight is proven to increase overall wellness in human beings and adding it to a space can be an instant mood booster. By adding daylight inside, architects and designers are creating healthy buildings people will love to be in. Skylights come in all shapes and sizes to add natural daylight in any space. Whether you’re designing a school, gymnasium, art museum or aquatics center – natural daylight is always the perfect addition to a space.

Skylights are a great way to add natural light, and can bring illumination deep into spaces where sidelight struggles to go. But beware – if done improperly, skylights can make lighting patterns worse and create serious glare issues. This happens when clear glazings are used. Direct beam sunlight creates bright patches, up to 10’s of thousands of lux, in an interior that is nominally a 500 lux environment. Occupants will struggle in this level of glare and contrast.

This is easily rectified by use of engineered light diffusing glazings such as Solera in skylights. The impact is dramatic, creating a bright positive functional environment that occupants love to be in. Where applicable, light diffusing skylights are a hugely practical way to make a massive impact on your space.

Museo de Ponce - Puerto Rico

Daylight is powerful and when used correctly it can illuminate a space all by itself, as seen in Museo de Ponce in Puerto Rico. In this art museum, the architects relied solely on natural daylight to provide lighting in this space. The prime reason was to achieve perfect color rendering for viewing this pre-eminent art collection, but also means no lighting bills and an abundance of natural wellness for building occupants. Seven large and elegant dome skylights create near perfect daylight to illuminate the galleries and artwork – this is where Advanced Glazings Ltd.’s Solera product was featured.  

“Daylighting has transformed the space and really brought the paintings back to life. Using AGL’s Solera product allowed us to diffuse the natural light and provide a near consistent level of illumination. The end result maintains the integrity of the design, but it also was the most cost-effective solution. It controls the intensity of light and UV rays to preserve the paintings and provide a premium viewing experience. Also, electric lighting isn’t needed during the day, because the region has clear skies the majority of the time.” says Matthew Tanteri, Associate Principle and Daylighting Practice Leader with HLB Lighting Design,

Curious to learn more about how Solera skylights can help you create spaces that people want to be in?  We’re here to help you. Contact a member of our team today for a complimentary daylight model to get your project started: https://www.advancedglazings.com/contact