Daylighting Strategy for My Office....

My workspace is in the center of the office plan shown below, which is in the lowest level of an eight story building with residential in all the floors above us. The building was built in the late 1800’s with exterior brick walls 2’-3’ thick. The property lines are at the face of the building on all sides. Our North front entry doors are located on a City park that cuts through the City downtown.

When I started thinking about daylighting for our space, I thought it would be a minimal amount around the perimeter, however by adding light shelves at the windows, light could be reflected deeper into the space. As you can see by the plan, our space is a sea of system furniture. The dividers running North and South are 12” above desk top and the east and west dividers are 6’ high. My space indicated in the center doesn’t have a chance! Daylighting by skylights is impossible with the seven floors of existing residential above our space.



















The two sections below indicate how light shelves would help light penetrate the space. I believe a “light reflector” above the shelf would help move light, as the exposed ceiling has miscellaneous pipes, conduits, and ducts.