Comparative study of the luminous environments of vernacular architectures in China and the United States at 30th parallel north

ABSTRACT

The vernacular architectures in the Eastern and Western worlds are closely related to their respective unique cultures, local climates and environments. To create some new idea collisions on the efficient use of the light environment and promote the interpretation of such vernacular architectures for modern architects, the luminous environments of two typical vernacular architectures, one in China and one in the United States, were studied. By combining experimental measurements and computer simulations, the luminous environments were explored with a focus on the aspects of natural illumination conditions and the effects of windows and orientation. The illumination conditions of the China Meishan Cultural Park farmhouse (designated as the CMCP farmhouse) in China and the Magnolia Mound Plantation house (designated as the MMP house) in the United States were found to generally meet the IES standards. Furthermore, less artificial lighting and more uniform illumination across the entire gallery were advantages in the MMP house. The lateral windows of the house were beneficial in that they provided more natural lighting and were more conducive to the spread of illumination, but this was not the case for the dormer window. To some extent, the east–west orientation favoured more natural illumination, while the illumination distribution in the south–north orientation was more uniform.

KEYWORDS:

• Luminous environment
• vernacular architectures
• building energy conservation
• windows
• building orientation

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Acknowledgements

This work and the exchange programme are supported by the cooperation between the School of Architecture, Hunan University and the College of Art & Design, Louisiana State University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.