ANÁLISE DA ILUMINAÇÃO NATURAL A PARTIR DE ELEMENTOS HORIZONTAIS E VERTICAIS DE PROTEÇÃO SOLAR APLICADOS A ABERTURA LATERAL DE SALAS DE AULA NA CIDADE DE JOÃO PESSOA / PB

Abstract

Considering school’s environment natural lighting, it can be said that there are innumerous physiological and psychological benefits provided by this type of light. Natural light is the most important environmental stimulus that regulates the circadian system (BOYCE; HUNTER; HOWLET, 2003), which is responsible for the human being’s biological clock, acting on well-being, attention degree and sleep quality. This paper’s objective is to analyze how the use of vertical and horizontal protection elements (with different configurations) in lateral opening influences natural light’s behavior in classroom spaces located in low latitude places. This behavior was investigated through a small-scale physical model. The methodological procedure adopted for this research characterizes primarily by measurements made from a reduced physical model that is based on the dimensions and geometry adopted in a standard classroom project in municipal elementary schools. The study comprehends three phases: I) Delimitation of the study object, definition and construction of analysis models; II) Quantitative data collection (on-site measurements); III) Data tabulation and descriptive and inferential analyzes. The results showed that these elements presence resulted in greater light homogeneity in relation to the case in which there were not brises. It was observed that even with the presence of these elements, the illumination levels reached in most of the time are quite high (above 500 lux) for classroom environments. Among all observed situations, it was noticed that adequate levels (between 300 and 500 lux) of illuminance reached a maximum of 16.7% of the total records. These high levels can be attributed to the reflections caused by brises surfaces (white color) directed to the environment’s interior.