Daylighting in shopping malls: Customer’s perception, preference, and satisfaction: Fid-Bau Portal

Daylighting in shopping malls: Customer’s perception, preference, and satisfaction

Mayhoub, M.S. / Rabboh, Emad H.

Highlights • Artificial lighting is better recognized by customers than daylighting. • Outside view and presence of sunlight enhance the perception of daylighting. • Daylighting role in improving customers’ mood is more vital than saving energy. • Lighting quality enhances customers’ satisfaction more than lighting source. • There is an expected gap between customers’ needs and designers’ goals.

Abstract Given the rapid rise in the efficiency of artificial lighting systems, the challenges for any daylighting system on the basis of energy savings will be more challenging in the future. To sustain the role of daylighting in shopping malls, a field survey was conducted to explore daylighting benefits from the customers’ perspective. By analyzing the data collected from 552 Carian shopping malls’ customers, the present study supports the emerging idea that daylighting is more important to improving users’ mood than saving energy. The study found that ‘illumination’ was ranked as the most important element in the shopping malls' internal environment. Connection to outside views and the presence of sunlight were preferred and significantly enhanced the customers’ ability to recognize the utilization of daylight, which, in turn, increased customer satisfaction level. However, the study argues that lighting quality, rather than lighting source (natural or artificial), is what increases customer satisfaction. More studies are essential for elucidating the association between the conscious/subconscious perception of daylight utilization and the achievement of the intended human-related benefits. A better understanding of the customers’ perspectives will guide building designers toward effective daylighting solutions and shift the attention from the functional to the emotional role of daylighting.