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Virginia Tech

Natural Light Transition Through A Healthcare Setting

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Healthcare workers' overall performance and patients' well-being are crucial to wellness design and the overall productivity of the working environment. The purpose of this thesis is to narrate how natural light - a key aspect of biophilic design - can give great health outcomes and enhance the placemaking of a healthcare setting. Hence, this dissertation attempts to deal with placemaking and formation as an inside-outside dialogue that connects users to nature by implementing the idea of transitioning natural light through space and structure. In doing so, lighting explorations were conducted as series of physical models and case studies to help understand and analyze various effects of light at different times of the day. These explorations narrate a story about the journey of the medical worker and the patient throughout the setting of the apertures, walls, path, and canopy. Also, in response to the topography, a south-facing aperture wants to be framed, while a north-facing aperture can be an open wall, a smooth polished continuous wall and path can act as a canvas when the filtered light falls on it, while rough fragmented walls rise from earth acting as structural walls, and a cluster of trees can act as a natural canopy to provide shelter from the sun, while a steel canopy can shelter other areas from the rain or sun.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Al Hourani, Ehab Faisal
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Jones, James R.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Gibbons, Ronald B.
  • Ishida, Aki

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:32259
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/105035

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Al Hourani, Ehab Faisal. Natural Light Transition Through A Healthcare Setting. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/105035