Light and air
Skylight
housing school warehouse pasillo bathroom
An opening in the roof, closed with glass or another transparent material, that lets in daylight from above.
Solves
What it solves
It lights interior rooms, corridors and bathrooms without windows during the day. In the tropics it must control direct sun and heat, which come in strongly through the roof.
Today
Prefer diffuse light with opal glass or polycarbonate with low solar heat gain, with a light well that spreads it. Place it away from the afternoon sun and seal it well against the rain.
Common mistake
Installing clear, unprotected glass in a tropical roof, which brings in heat and glare.
Tomorrow
More natural light in corridors and bathrooms helps older people find their way and not trip. Light tubes bring that brightness to windowless rooms with little heat gain.
Fact On cloudy days, top light yields three to ten times more than light coming in through a side window.
Where it comes from
- 1Roman architecture Rome, Antiquity
It used unglazed openings in the roof, such as the oculus of the Pantheon. - 2Industrial Revolution Europe, 19th century
Improvements in glass manufacturing made the closed skylight practical.
Masters
- Louis Kahn Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, United States, 1972
He opens a slot of light at the top of each vault and spreads it with a curved screen of perforated aluminum. He achieves even daylight without direct sun on the artworks.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Light and air
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.