Resumen de Natural lighting in mediterranean climates. Visual comfort in top-lit sports halls: from the barcelona 1992 olympics to the tarragona 2018 mediterranean games
María Leandra González Matterson
The role of natural light in the health and wellbeing of users is a central subject to architectural design today. Sustainability and energy efficiency are also leading concerns. Therefore, new and existing buildings must provide optimal comfort, while reducing the energy consumption for lighting, ventilation and heating.
In this context, this thesis investigates the performance of natural light in sports halls in a Mediterranean climate in relation to both users, athletes and spectators, and television broadcasting requirements. In addition, it explores the impact of daylight design strategies to achieve visual comfort.
Even though there is a large amount of research in the field of visual comfort and daylight, sports spaces are scarcely studied. Because the athletes and their visual targets are in movement, the visual field becomes three-dimensional and its assessment complex. Thus, this thesis explains a specific methodology which was designed and implemented from an architectonic and holistic approach. Both qualitative and quantitative parameters of visual comfort were assessed in daylit sports halls. Objective and subjective data were collected from case studies, comprising in-situ measurements, such as horizontal and vertical illuminance. As well, it included high dynamic range images survey, glare and contrast evaluation in the field of view, simulations, an experimental test and visual comfort surveys. In addition, it analysed the optimisation of daylight at the initial stages of the design development of a new sports facility.
This research is explained in three main parts completed over several years. The first part of this work evaluates the performance of naturally lit and, in particular, top-lit sports halls built for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. Thirteen different sport buildings in Catalunya were assessed, where the widespread use of skylights for daylighting correlates with a suitable global performance. Nonetheless, visual discomfort issues by absolute and contrast glare were frequent because of lack of daylight control and solar protection devices, among others.
In the second part and based on previous results, daylight design strategies are suggested for the improvement of visual comfort in four of the Olympic sports halls. Photorealistic and calibrated images were obtained to validate the design measures proposed through experimental tests. Additionally, the panel responses were collected and analysed, revealing that users prefer a uniformly well day-lit court, when daylighting strategies were integrated. The court is featured as the main and central element of the luminous space for users.
The third part was completed at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research - IREC and presents daylighting design strategies, which were compiled for the optimisation of natural light in sports halls of Catalonia. These guidelines were implemented in the building design of the new Palau d’Esports Catalunya, built for the Tarragona 2018 Mediterranean Games. The goals of the optimisation of the central skylight were also contrasted and verified with two Post Occupancy Evaluation campaigns.
Finally, this work highlights the complexity of the design of the luminous space and encourages the inclusion of natural light from early design phases. This can be useful either for retrofitting strategies or new design of sports halls in Mediterranean climates and other climates and latitudes, since both overcast skies and clear skies were assessed.
