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NORDIC LIGHT & COLOUR
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research question becomes: Are VEs a valid research method
to study how the perceived quality of a room is affected by the
interaction of daylight and colour? To start to test this, a pilot
study has been design and executed.
Pilot Study
Aim and Scope
This project deals with the study of the comparability between
the two research tools mentioned above: Real Environments
(RE) and Virtual Environments (VE). The pilot study was de-
signed to: (i) get a better approximation of knowledge of the
different environments to study, (ii) test the different stimuli,
and (iii)correct potential mistakes that could arise during the
experimental session to try to avoid them in the main experi-
ment. The results of the pilot study will then be a starting point
that will help to maintain scientific rigor when fulfilling the core
of the PhD project, the main experimental sessions.
Two real temporary full scale rooms, one black and one white,
were constructed on the Room Laboratory (Romlab) located at
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),
Trondheim - Norway. The 3D pictures were taken directly from
the real environments (RE) and shown on a 1:1 scale. The pic-
tures were projected on a silver screen in the same laboratory.
Both RE and VE were observed and evaluated by experimental
participants.
It is expected to find some differences in scores between the
VE and the RE, because interaction with the environment may
not be possible with the VE. There is also expected difference
in scores between different wall colour surfaces and different
daylight openings. From the collected data from both methods
VEs and REs, the limits of using a VE method can be drawn
and the method can be narrowed down to study specific scopes
within daylight and colour in architecture.
Methods, Hypothesis and Procedure
The pilot study had the following characteristics:
•
Real Environments:
Two rooms of equal dimensions (3.00
x 3.60 m) with similar openings and furniture configuration.
One room had black wall surfaces and the other had white
wall surfaces. These rooms were built with the aid of the “wall
bricks” (boxes of 50x50x25cm) and pre-constructed wall panels
(width = 60cm), both already present at the Romlab (See figure
1). To form windows, metal frames of equal dimensions to the
“bricks” fulfilled this purpose. In order to have better control of
the fluctuations of the Illuminance that natural light can pres-
ent, translucent curtains were used. Due the position of the
rooms inside the Romlab, the glazing areas to provide daylight
to the room were placed on a North-East position, this way, un-
expected direct sunlight, if any, was not possible after midday.
However, the pilot experiment was carried out during overcast
sky. The furniture was simplified by using boxes of 50x50x25
cm, presented at the laboratory. In addition, a chair, a lamp
and bedding set was set in place to create the “student room”.
In both of the rooms, the furniture was situated in the same
coordinates relating the position of the door entrance and the
window (See Figures 2 and 3). Both have furniture of the same
colour as the wall surfaces and in some cases (e.g. bed and
bookshelf) were of a grey colour, in order to maintain achro-
matic colours and control over the variables (See Figures 2 and
3). The nominal colour of the wall elements and main furniture
was registered with the Natural Colour System (NCS). When
establishing the nominal colours of the room elements, it was
seen that not all of the elements were completely achromatic,
but they had a hint of chromatic attributes (hue towards yellow
- See Table 1). Illuminance and Luminance values were mea-
sured using a lux meter (See Table 2) and luminance pictures
taken with an EOS350D digital reflex camera (See figure 4). The
participants were inside the RE when evaluating them.
Table 1: NCS Codes – Nominal Colours of real environments elements.