Visual delight in architecture: the role of window views

Sustainable Lighting Design

In this episode, we talk with Lisa Heschong, architect and founding principal of the Heschong Mahone Group (HMG), a building science consulting firm, where she led groundbreaking research showing the relationship between daylight and student test scores, retail sales, and office worker performance. Lisa is also the author of the renowned book Thermal Delight in Architecture, and the most recently published book Visual Delight in Architecture, along with many groundbreaking technical publications about daylighting and energy efficiency in buildings. In this episode we will talk with Lisa about some of the topics that she covers in her last book, such as the importance and the value of having a view out, as well as how views can be evaluated. We also discuss the benefits and challenges of considering both daylight and electric light when designing buildings, and conclusions from the various research that she has led throughout her career. This podcast is part of a research-in-practice project on sustainable lighting design by Maha Shalaby & Isabel Villar.