Daylighted

Daylighted is the adjective or past tense form of daylight. In architecture, daylighted spaces are rooms or interiors designed to be lit primarily by natural daylight rather than artificial lighting. The term emphasizes the use of windows, skylights, light wells, light shelves, and other features to bring daylight deep into interior spaces while controlling glare and heat gain.

Common design goals include reducing energy consumption for electric lighting, improving visual comfort, and enhancing occupant well-being. Design tools include daylight factor measurements, daylight autonomy, and computer simulations of sun exposure across seasons. Typical strategies include maximizing window area on façades with favorable solar exposure, using clerestories and skylights to bring light to interior cores, employing light shelves and diffusing glazing to spread light, and designing for proper shading to avoid overheating and glare.

In a broader sense, daylighting also refers to the act of revealing or making something known that was previously hidden. In journalism, governance, or legal contexts, to daylight information means to disclose it publicly; daylighting a document or process implies making its contents accessible and transparent. The past tense daylighted can be used to describe such disclosures, though daylighting is the more common noun for the practice of natural lighting and disclosure.

The term derives from daylight, meaning the light provided by the sun during daytime, and the suffix -ed indicating a completed action or property. Daylighted environments are a central concern in sustainable building design and are often pursued as part of broader green-building and low-energy strategies.