The Architecture of Light: Recent Approaches to Designing with Natural Light

Reviewing the use of natural light by architects in the era of electricity, this book aims to show that natural light not only remains a potential source of order in architecture, but that natural lighting strategies impose a usefully creative discipline on design.

Considering an approach to environmental context that sees light as a critical aspect of place, this book explores current attitudes to natural light by offering a series of in-depth studies of recent projects and the particular lighting issues they have addressed. It gives a more nuanced appraisal of these lighting strategies by setting them within their broader topographic, climatic and cultural contexts.

Mary Ann Steane is an architect and a lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Her research on the use of natural light marries an understanding of lighting design principles with a broader cultural perspective. She examines how architects handle the relationship between light, material and the occupation of space, looking closely at the way in which these factors affect perception of and attunement to the visual environment.