An-Najah Staff

This paper reviews the results from two field researches (qualitative and quantitative) of environmental (luminous) comfort within two types of dwellings; traditional and contemporary dwellings, in two Palestinian cities (Jericho and Nablus) of two different climatic zones. In Summer 2009, a questionnaire survey was carried out over 291 dwellings of different housing typologies. In summer 2010 and 2011, two in-situ campaign (spot and daily) were undertaken over 22 dwellings.For Nabulsis, improving the luminous conditions presents the second preference aspect. In addition, although the indoor daylight level, based on ASE8911 and CIE etc, implied discomfort, the occupants expressed their satisfaction with the indoor luminous comfort conditions.Privacy, interior spatial organization and others strongly influenced the interior lighting performance. However, residents of traditional dwellings were more tolerated than who reside in contemporary ones. Reviewing and improving the traditional daylight strategies into a modern language could enhance both luminous and visual comfort in the future designs.
Keywords: daylight, comfort, inhabitants’ perception, traditional strategies, Palestine.