Visual condition in University: an experimental performance evaluation activity

The paper presents the outcomes of an experimental evaluation of the environmental quality in the university classrooms. This activity is part of the “Sustainable Campus” research project of the Politecnico di Milano and of the Università degli Studi, aimed to develop new action lines to improve global sustainability in these universities and in their neighbourhood. The main goal of the research work was to define and to test simplified multicriteria methodologies to evaluate the use adequacy of the classrooms, with a particular focus on natural and artificial lighting conditions, as they were neglected in all the past works of adaptation and/or retrofit. First it was defined an evaluation procedure and applied over a sample building. This was based on the comparison between performance requirements and real conditions. They have been verified by inspections, behavioural observations and by simplified simulations of the visual performance conditions. In particular, the intensity and the way of use during the didactic activities, the equipments and their locations and the overhead lighting were evaluated in various classrooms with different shape and orientation. The lighting conditions have been evaluated on the desks or the worktable in each classroom, according with the lighting levels requirements for the different activities in the work environments, set in the European Standard UNI EN 12464-1. Comparing the outcomes of the various analysis, some critical states were found and mapped. On this base the main improvement goals were established and then some solutions – alternative and/o complementary among them- were outlined in particular concerning the equipment, the internal layout and the lighting.