Ellen Kathrine Hansen

Aalborg University · Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology

Outdoor lighting has mainly been approached as an engineering subject throughout its history. The current urban lighting requirements are established upon factors which mainly refer to motorised traffic dynamics. As a consequence, excessive lighting levels are found in the city environments with a negative impact on the human as well as the environ...

The experience of light in a space and the physiological effect of light combined is complex to study. Methods which combine parameters from the fields of the biological, visual and atmospheric effects of light through a combination of both qualitative and quantitative data collection on site, seem more important than ever to validate the potential...

Often the criteria for designing office lighting is to increase efficiency through a bright and evenly distributed lighting. Yet, research has found that this static lighting leads to an unstimulating, boring, and dull luminous environment that supports neither task focus, nor a pleasant atmosphere. The goal of this paper is to create a closer conn...

This paper explores how lighting and darkness influence human experiences of architectural and social public urban contexts in dark hours. Tram stations in Aarhus, Denmark, are used as cases to investigate how brightness levels influence human sensory experience of the local space, the surroundings, co-presence with other people, and the activities...

New media and lighting technology and new ways to connect and control it have the potential to improve the environment in hospitals with the goal of increasing patient satisfaction. How should such system be designed to do so and how can it be tested? In this paper it is investigated how a specific case, an interactive lighting and media system ins...

In order to create awareness of different qualities of light in indoor living spaces, two different lighting cultures are being investigated; Northern and Southern European. We therefore investigate the relation between natural and artificial light, based on geographical position as well as social/cultural habits of different countries. The aim is...

A holistic approach to daylight dynamics in our built environment can have beneficial outcomes for both physiological and visual effects on humans. Simulations of how daylight variables affect light levels on the horizontal work plane are compared to their physiological effects, measured as melanopic EDI (Melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance)...

People currently exist mainly indoors, detached from their natural surroundings. During times of rapid growth, globalization and digitalization, it has never been more important to investigate how to reconnect to our natural environment. In this paper we develop a design to investigate how a lighting design concept can act as a tool to understand t...

The experiment was targeted to develop design strategies and methods by testing the complex interplay between the dynamics of daylight and electrical lighting in an office. The double dynamic lighting design concept is based on the idea of adding task lighting, with a directionality referring to the daylight inflow and a variation on direct/diffuse...

In this paper, we investigate how intensity of light in a space and ratios between light a space and in its surroundings affect perception of the atmosphere of the space, experience of co-presence and perception of the surrounding context. A preliminary field study in urban public transportation waiting areas showed, through observations and interv...

Human perception and vision have evolved in response to dynamic daylight, a combination of radiation from direct sunlight and diffuse skylight, which has created a flow of variations in light, in terms of direct:diffuse distribution, intensities and spectrum. This study investigates the qualities of the flow of light in an office after adding ceili...

This paper presents the results of a field study on the use of lighting as a tool to structure and support teaching and learning activities by teachers. In a Danish elementary school, a dynamic lighting technology with the option of choosing four different lighting scenarios was installed in classrooms. The teachers’ use of the lighting was studied...

This article presents the results of a spatial experiment, which investigates the ambience potential of coloured illuminations in architecture. The experiment took place over a period of two weeks, situated in a semi-laboratory setting of a performance art installation. Qualitative methods inspired by sensory ethnography and cultural probes were ap...

Abstract. In order to understand how research can support lighting designs to improve nurturing environments for learning, a literature review was carried out. The review examined lighting research methods and parameters used for evaluating the effect of dynamic lighting in classrooms. The test parameter gaining most attention in the studies is aca...

Taking its point of departure in a series of architectural experiments realized in the period from 2001-2011, this paper approaches the problem area of the development and application of new knowledge through design in a trans-disciplinary environment. This praxis grounded in innovation and design theory demonstrates that research from different tr...

Light as a multi-dimensional design element has fundamental importance for a sustainable environment. The paper discusses the need for an integration of scientific, technical and creative approaches to light and presents theory, methods and applications toward fulfilling this need. A theory of design developed from three experiments show how distin...

This paper focuses on how smart technologies integrated in a one-family home, and particularly a window, offer unique challenges and opportunities for designing buildings with the best possible environments for people and nature. Toward an interdisciplinary and multidimensional approach, we address the interaction between daylight defined in techni...

The Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of our buildings is essential to our health. In developing sustainable residential buildings of the future there lie a great challenge in combining energy efficiency with healthy and good IEQ while creating beautiful buildings and environments that give more than they take. The Active House vision approached e...

VKR Holding, based in Hørsholm, Denmark, is financing in five European countries to build a sustainable, affordable house that uses readily available technology to negate its imprint on the environment and to promote the health and comfort of its inhabitants. The Simonsens had lived in the house for 3 months, and it was already abundantly clear tha...

The paper studies the Active House vision and the Active House Specification work-in-progress to identify what parameters to measure when measuring sustainable homes of the future. The approach is based on a Mixed Methods research strategy where measurements are related to both quantitative and qualitative aspects in relation to the categories Ener...

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how a holistic approach to the window as a design element can be used as a poetic device and technical tool to improve quality of life in energy positive homes. -Through a case study of the residential building Home for Life, built in accordance with the Active House vision, 'fictive user statements' from the...

Through the last decades there has been a growing interest in quantitative assessment of building performance in line with the technical and practical development of sustainable buildings. Now, contours of a more holistic approach to sustainable buildings begin to emerge, for instance in the Active House vision, and the technological and practical...