Evaluation of the availability of daylight in the historic CampusLar/UFS building

Abstract

The use of daylighting in buildings of historical value is an important premise in the adequacy of such spaces for educational use. The literature still lacks discussions and references on the subject, which results in buildings that are inadequate for educational use. The Laranjeiras Campus of the Federal University of Sergipe is inserted in this context, as it is located in an architectural complex of the eighteenth century. The objective of this study was to evaluate the daylighting conditions in the classrooms of the Laranjeiras campus. To this end, three representative typologies were chosen. The rooms were computationally simulated using the Troplux software. The metrics evaluated were the mean annual illuminance, mean annual uniformity, useful daylight illuminance and spatial autonomy of daylight. The results point out that the small dimensions of the windows inserted in the new walls of the buildings are insufficient to promote the amount of natural light in the environments. In some cases, where they are sufficient, the fact that there is no solar protection makes their use unfeasible. The original large windows tend to promote a lot of light into the internal environment, resulting in regions that are very bright near the window and dark in the more distant portions. It can be concluded that the work evaluates a clipping of the reality of CampusLar, and that in this sense it fosters discussion about the suitability of historic buildings for educational purposes.