Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-435) and index.

An introduction to daylighting as a key component in a sustainable approach to architectural design. The AIA has adopted sustainability as a key goal for the built environment, stating that it integrates resource and energy efficiency, healthy buildings, ecologically and socially sensitive land use, and aesthetics. Daylighting contributes to this goal both in its environmental implications (energy, resource conservation, and climate control) and in its human and architectural implications (health, social concerns, and aesthetics). The book provides practical design strategies for sustainable daylighting design through three basic approaches: environmental - the natural forces that act on design and resource and energy conservation; architectonic - formal, technological, and mechanical factors; and human - the impact on people and their experience. These basic lighting approaches mirror the strategies of sustainability and thus support the larger ecological goal.