Simulating the natural lighting for a physical and mental Well-being in residential building in Dubai, UAE
Our authentic lives have engendered a growing interest in life quality and the concept of well-being related to health. The World Health Organization's (WHO) Charter includes integrating well-being, the meaning of welfare, and happiness, which defines human health as being disease-free and living a life of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. A life of physical health and mental serenity is referred to as well-being. People seek to enjoy the health of their bodies and minds and a wealthy lifestyle centered on health and the environment, rather than a life seeking material values or reputations, as well-being arises from a global lifestyle. Throughout society, well-being themes are applied to food, home appliances, and fashion and are rapidly spreading with the keyword of health.
Eco-friendly building materials help nature and people cohabit in the real estate sector, establishing eco-friendly housing as a sustainable concept. Well-being, which has become a new way of life, needs to be reviewed apropos the light environment of residential spaces used for rest, comfort, peace, and relaxation. Lighting offers a visual stimulus and a work environment in a house-residential setting so that residents can see the contents, and it is crucial for making the interior attractive and pleasant and the link to human health. However, to date, a tremendous oversight has obliterated the significance of light. Light is alive in its fundamental role of illuminating a space, delivering an appropriate amount of brightness consistently independent of the place's purpose and function and in users' psychological and mental characteristics.
In the United Arab Emirates, UAE Government's 2021 objective is to be the best in the world on the Human Development Index and the happiest of all nations for the residents to feel a sense of belonging. In 2016. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai announced the new National Programme for Happiness and Well-being, which sets government policies, programs, and services that can promote virtues of a positive lifestyle in the community and a plan for the development of a happiness index to measure people's satisfaction.
Along with UAE's national strategy, The Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA) introduced the indoor lighting standard not only for helping reduce energy consumption but ensuring a reduction in carbon emissions. These new lighting scene standards save 668 M AED annually (approximately 452 M AED in the residential sector), removing 940,000 tons of carbon emissions. The UAE government is well aware of energy consumption and the reduction in carbon emissions in the quantitative analysis for lighting, although lighting for well-being is not well defined for psychological and mental health. Analogously, current trends, technology, and national efforts are the background of this study that attempts to present new strategic lighting layouts (lighting scenes) standards related to light in residential spaces. The paper aims for a healthy life by presenting and simulating to the users the natural lighting diversity all over the day to cope with the circadian rhythm for physical and mental well-being in Dubai, UAE, by using innovative artificial lamps.
Materials and methods:
ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages" class="topic-link" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); color: rgb(46, 46, 46); word-break: break-word; text-underline-offset: 1px;">Illuminance is the light flux per unit area incident on a specific space, expressed in lux units. A person's brightness in everyday life varies significantly from 0.2 lx of moonlight to 100,000 lx of midday sunlight. Therefore, illuminance is the basis of lighting design for the characteristics of space and human behavior and is an essential factor for realizing healthy lighting.
Circadian rhythm:
There is a definitive relationship between light brightness and circadian rhythm. Light is the most critical stimulant to change the circadian rhythm. Circadian System refers to the internal body clock, which collectively refers to the three regular rhythms of body, emotion, and intelligence. The circadian system regulates physiological rhythms such as human body temperature, sleep pattern, hormone secretion, and blood pressure. A melatonin hormone made during sleep plays a vital role in regulating biological rhythms so that the body's overall function is in harmony. Melatonin decreases when exposed to light in the morning, rises from around the evening, and increases gradually the night; it reaches its peak at 2:00 am to 3:00 am, and when dawn approaches, the amount of secretion decreases sharply, maintaining a low level from the morning. As such, melatonin is reduced by light, so it is meaningful to secrete appropriate melatonin through step-by-step brightness control before waking up or going to sleep. Therefore, the human retina's light plays a vital role in seeing objects and matching the human body's rhythm to the 24-hour cycle. The below figure shows the hormones and body cycles related to light, where the illumination control can adjust the biological rhythm to suit the human body's characteristics and life patterns
Fig.
Vision and lighting:
There is a close correlation between light brightness and circadian rhythm. The human eye can see a wide range of brightness during the day, from tens of thousands of luxe to less than 1 lx at nighttime. Bright and dark adaptation are two types of responses linked to light luminosity. Generally, it takes about 30 min to change from bright adaptation to dark adaptation, and on the contrary, bright adaptation when coming out from a dark place to a bright one is concise, about 200 ms. However, age affects visual perception; the older, the more the eye cells' sensitivity to feel and respond to light decreases, and the sensitivity of the abstract body and rod to respond to the quantitative change of light decreases with age. As a result, the time required for dark adaptation increases, and at the same time, the adaptability to variation decreases, making it difficult to see an object in a dark place. In a residential environment, measures for the difference in brightness between the background and the subject or lighting are necessary, so a lighting layout that can adjust the illuminance and color temperature according to age should be considered in a residential space as the functionality of these spaces.
Psychology and lighting:
The human brain emits different brain waves depending on the state of the body or the state of mind, and through these brain waves, it is possible to grasp the state of the brain. Because light detects color not only by the eyes but also by the skin, the muscles are also tense by the light. People generally respond faster than usual when they receive bright or red light, and the response when they receive dark or green light is rather delayed. Therefore, interior architects must do a lighting study in terms of brightness and hue, as these factors have a significant impact on the physical and psychological of the users. Color always exists and has much influence on our lives. Color selection occurs based on scientific psychology, physiology, lighting, and aesthetics. As culture develops, using color's psychological and physiological effects becomes more decisive Humans have various psychological reactions in space according to the direction of lighting. The projecting role of light is for visual activities, but the range of light is broad enough to affect environmental factors. Even in the same space, it is possible to create a space that changes in various ways according to the usage of light. Lighting has a visual effect of reducing or expanding a given interior and acts as an element that affects the expression or size of the room or the height of the ceiling.
Results:
The theoretical review and analysis of new lighting sources led to the following new lighting proposal developed for each interior space by finding the relationship between the residential space requirements and the light strategy for the interior environment. The proposals consider simulating the natural lighting levels and colors that improve the users' biorhythms and visualities by the artificial lighting sources. The proposals are for one apartment for a typical family that needs to be composed of a Master Bedroom, Children's Room, Living Area, Bathroom, and Miscellaneous Space, using the recommended light level and the color temperature that follows the circadian rhythms.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Ain Shams Engineering Journal. The original text of this story is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference: Science direct
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