Impact of Daylighting Design Strategies on Social Sustainability Through the Built Environment

Despite the recent trends toward sustainable architecture, the concept of social sustainability has not been practically addressed through design strategies. This paper aims to address this disparity through an investigation of daylighting design strategies and situate social sustainability aspects related to the built environment in Iranian traditional four-season courtyard houses in a hot and arid region. The methods of the investigation are based on a qualitative and quantitative approach to infuse theories of social sustainability aspects into practice. Results show that daylighting design strategies in these houses were implemented based on a human-centered design with a careful attention to social sustainability aspects in the built environment context. Findings can be considered in designing contemporary housing with a similar cultural and climatic response. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment