Salutogenese – Das Jahrbuch der KIT-Fakultät für Architektur 2021

and general satisfaction. Depending on occupancy, temporality
and type of activity, the lighting conditions could be
handled differently to address the particular requirements
of public and private environments. Ideally, lighting solutions
should integrate daylight and artificial lighting with
dynamic control (e.g. dimming and colour tuning) to adjust
the light quality individually according to the personal
performance and mood. However, the utmost focus is to enhance
human perception and minimise all possible discomforting
factors like glare, poor colour rendition or light pollution.
The aim of good lighting relies on non-harming and
well-accepted effects. Besides, lighting also affects certain biological
functions such as metabolism stimulation and hormone
production. These functions result from direct exposure
to daylight and greatly influence our daily per formance
and overall wellbeing. Considering that we spend about 90%
of our time indoors, a good daylight supply is
essential for a healthy lifestyle in interior spaces to synchronise
our inner body clock and circadian rhythm with the
time of the day.
Understanding the indoor air quality and the impact
on building occupants comprises the evaluation of the
different indoor pollutants. The first group of indoor pollutants
is directly associated with strong smells and hazardous
health effects (e.g. material emissions from furniture).
The second group is related to the smells produced by human
bio effluents, where a strong adaptation process occurs. For
the latter, the CO 2
-concentration is usually adopted as an
indicator of the indoor air quality in buildings. There is no
index yet that summarises the effect of the different pollutants
observed in the built environment. Occupants’ prolonged
and reiterative exposure to different indoor pollutants
results mainly in respiratory diseases, such as asthma
or allergy symptoms, and chronic sick building syndrome.
Buildings must be designed to minimise these risk and
health-related issues; therefore, providing adequate ventilation
through natural and mechanical ventilation is essential.
Designing adequate air exchange rates in buildings helps
to achieve healthy environments without resigning energy
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Diskurs