CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Neonatal Intensive Care Units are aspecial lighting design challenge. Although natural light is highly desirable, it should be carefullyplanned to maximize benefits and minimize the problems associated withuncontrolled sunlight. This paper discusses the performance of different passivesunlight control strategies in a neonatal intensive care unit at the Dr. NottiChildren´s Hospital in Mendoza, Argentina, analyzing their annual daylightbehaviour through dynamic daylight simulations. The aim of this work is tooptimize the use of daylight in neonatal intensive care units, considering thespecial lighting conditions required. Results show that, in this case study,the adequate implementation of solar control systems and the appropriate layoutof the space for different uses according to surrounding building design andthe characteristics of the local luminous climate can increase the usefuldaylight illuminance by up to 13%, while avoiding the incidence of direct sunlight at all times.