Abstract:
Colored glass is currently widely used in buildings which require natural light because of its beauty, its ability to filter glare and the fact that it is heatproof. The architect or the designer, however, is not aware of its effects on those working or living in such buildings, particularly their visual discomfort. This research investigated only the indoor environment of an office equipped with colored glass.Seventy-five subjects were asked to look through an office model equipped with 12 pieces of colored acrylic glass (the co-efficient index of transparency was between 0.08 and 0.92). The colored glass was set up in the open space of the model. Daylight Glare Index (DGI) was measured only when the subjects looked through the colored glass commonly used for both inside and outside the building. The results were compared with those obtained when the subjects looked through the plain glass (daylight) which had a co-efficiency index of transparency about the same as that of the colored glass. Additionally, personal preference towards color was examined to see whether it affected the scale that one rated for visual discomfort.It was found that the light passing through the colored glass caused more visual discomfort than that passing through the plain glass. The warm colors, in particular, such as red, orange, pink and yellow created more visual discomfort than the cool colors, as a result, the discrepancy between the Daylight Glare Index of these two color groups was high. Those who preferred orange and pink agreed that these two colors did not cause much visual discomfort. It is suggested that a further study on this topic should be carried out in a real situation. More subjects should be included and a wider range of color preference should also be taken into consideration