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Department of Architectural Engineering
Faculty of Civil Engineering, CTU in Prague

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Česky

Ing.arch. Lenka Maierová, Ph.D.

Role: lecturer
Room: A 527a
Email:

TEACHING

Consulting hours : please send me an email


RESEARCH  INFORMATION
Light Perception in Humans - Visual and Biological Aspects, Inter-individual Differences

Eighty percent of the information is gathered by the eye. Next to the visual image, light perceived in the eye provides also a signal for the endogenous biological clock. The changes of the light are necessary to synchronize the internal time of the body to the day/night rhythm on the Earth.

Over millions of years our ancestors spent majority of their lifetime outdoors, in the natural conditions. Today we live mainly inside of buildings, in urban areas, separated from the influence of the nature. By creating our own artificial environment we became responsible for its quality.

It becomes crucial to determine not only visually optimal lighting conditions but also to take into account biological aspects and inter-individual differences. It has not been clarified whether light preferences are based as well on physiological needs or they follow the visual comfort solely.

In the study "Diurnal variations of hormonal secretion, alertness and cognition in extreme chronotypes under different lighting conditions" published 2015 in Nature Scientific Reports we investigate the effects of light on alertness in extreme chronotypes as on the natural model of extreme behavior within the healthy young population. The combined assessment of subjective and objective variables in subjects with known differences of their diurnal preference will generate a more comprehensive approach for optimizing indoor lighting conditions.

 

Buildings and Environment - Holistic Design Aproach with the Respect to the Local Potentials

The best construction is the one, which is the best fitting to the user, for good money and in the harmony with the environment. Beauty is created not in the subjects itself, but it’s a harmony of creation, properties and functions.

 

FAVOURITE REFERENCES
Anna Wirz-Justice, Colin Fournier: Light, Health and Wellbeing: Implications from chronobiology for architectural design

Daylight Academy: Changing Perspectives on Daylight