Post occupancy measurement, 24 classrooms, twelve months

Architecture research poster example

An architecture poster that reports a measured building has to open with the question, because the reader has to know what was being compared before the photographs they expect fail to appear. This board puts the question in a title panel down the left, then walks 24 classrooms, three window designs and twelve months of readings across the remaining columns.

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The whole board

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CU
Which window design keeps the lights off? Daylight autonomy in 24 classrooms across twelve months
E. Thornbury ¹, R. Salcedo ¹
1 School of Architecture and Built Environment, Corrimal University
Abstract
Daylight in a classroom is usually predicted from a model and rarely measured for a year. Twenty four classrooms across four schools were logged at desk height for twelve months, eight rooms in each of three window designs: single sided glazing, single sided glazing with a light shelf, and single sided glazing with a clerestory. Mean spatial daylight autonomy was 48%, 61% and 66%. The clerestory rooms sit 18 points above the baseline. Glare hours told a different story from daylight hours, and the two together are what a design decision needs. Blind use, logged by contact sensors on every window, is the variable that connects them: the baseline rooms had blinds down for 31% of occupied hours and the clerestory rooms for 11%. Electric lighting hours fell from 622 a year in the baseline to 407 in the clerestory rooms.
REFERENCES
1.Mackellar, D. and Osei, T. (2025) Measured against modelled daylight autonomy in school buildings. Journal of Building Performance, 19(1), 12 to 34.
2.Farrow, C. (2024) Blind use as the missing variable in daylight prediction. Architectural Science Review Papers, 27(3), 175 to 192.
3.Salcedo, R. and Thornbury, E. (2026) Twelve months of desk height logging in 24 classrooms. Corrimal Built Environment Reports, 6(2), 88 to 109.
The question
Every one of these rooms was designed to the same daylight target, and the target was met on paper in all three cases. The question is what a year of measurement says about a target that three quite different sections can all satisfy, and whether the differences that models treat as equivalent show up on a logger. Three sections, one target, four schools, twelve months of readings at desk height.
METHODS
Rooms. 24 classrooms across four schools on similar sites, all north facing, all between 58 and 64 square metres, all with the same blind type.
Designs. Eight rooms each: single sided glazing as the baseline, single sided plus a light shelf, and single sided plus a clerestory above the corridor wall.
Logging. Four illuminance sensors at desk height per room, logged at five minute intervals for twelve months, 2.1 million readings in total.
Daylight. Spatial daylight autonomy as the share of occupied hours above 300 lux at half the sensors, occupied hours taken as 8:30 to 15:30 on school days.
Glare. Glare hours counted as any occupied hour with a sensor above 2,500 lux, which is the point teachers in the pilot began lowering blinds.
PARTICIPANT FLOW
Classrooms considered across four schools
31
Excluded, refurbished or logger coverage under 90%
7
Classrooms analysed, twelve months each
24
Single sided baseline rooms
8
Light shelf and clerestory rooms
16
Daylight autonomy
Baseline
Light shelf
Clerestory
020406080
Figure 1. Spatial daylight autonomy for the baseline, light shelf and clerestory designs, mean of eight classrooms over twelve months.
Source: 24 classrooms, four schools, 2.1 million readings, 2026.
Results
Spatial daylight autonomy averaged 48% in the baseline rooms, 61% with a light shelf and 66% with a clerestory, with within design spread of 5, 4 and 6 points across the eight rooms of each type. Glare hours per year ran the other way for one design: 214 hours in the baseline rooms, 172 with a light shelf and 96 with a clerestory. The light shelf therefore bought 13 points of daylight and cut glare by a fifth, while the clerestory bought 18 points and cut glare by more than half. Blind use, logged by a contact sensor, matched the glare counts: baseline blinds were down for 31% of occupied hours, light shelf rooms 24% and clerestory rooms 11%. That last number is the mechanism behind the daylight result, because a lowered blind removes most of the daylight a design was credited with in the model. Electric lighting hours, taken from the circuit meter, were 622, 489 and 407 hours a year for the three designs, a fall of 35% between the baseline and the clerestory. The seasonal pattern is worth stating: all three designs met the 300 lux threshold for more than 70% of occupied hours between May and August, and the whole annual difference between them is earned in the four months either side of midsummer, when glare and blind use are highest.
18 points
more daylight autonomy in clerestory rooms
66% against 48% in the baseline, eight rooms each
Discussion
The models that approved these three sections treated them as equivalent, and a year of logging says they are not. The gap is not really about how much light enters, it is about how often the blind is down, and the blind is a response to glare rather than to daylight. A design that raises daylight and raises glare will lose most of the gain within a term, because teachers close the blinds and leave them closed. That is what separates the light shelf from the clerestory here. The light shelf reflects daylight deeper into the room but leaves the same window in the same wall, so the bright patch that triggers a blind is still there. The clerestory puts its aperture above the occupants line of sight, which is why its glare count is less than half the baseline while its daylight count is the highest of the three.
Conclusions
Across twelve months of measurement in 24 classrooms, a clerestory delivered 18 more points of daylight autonomy than single sided glazing and less than half the glare hours, while a light shelf delivered 13 points and a fifth less glare. Electric lighting hours fell from 622 to 407 a year between the baseline and the clerestory. Any daylight target that a section can meet on paper should be checked against blind use before it is trusted.
Specify glare hours alongside a daylight autonomy target
Model blind use, since a closed blind erases the daylight gain
A clerestory above the corridor wall beat a light shelf here
Log for a full year: a spring survey misses the glare season

Block by block

What each block on the board is for, in the order a reader walks it.

Title panel, two authors and the abstract
The question, the authors over one affiliation, and an abstract giving the three designs, the three daylight autonomy figures and the blind use numbers that explain them.
The question
Why three quite different sections all met the same daylight target on paper, and what a year of measurement says about a target that loose.
Methods as a labelled protocol
Five entries: the 24 rooms and how alike they are, the three window designs with eight rooms each, four sensors per room logging at five minute intervals, the daylight autonomy definition, and the glare threshold taken from pilot blind use.
Room flow
Thirty one classrooms considered, seven excluded for refurbishment during the year or logger coverage under 90%, and 24 analysed, split eight baseline and sixteen across the other two designs.
Figure 1, daylight autonomy by design
Three bars, one per window design, each the mean of eight classrooms over twelve months of five minute logging, with the within design spread given in the results text.
Results
The three autonomy figures with their spread, glare hours of 214, 172 and 96, blind use of 31%, 24% and 11%, electric lighting hours of 622, 489 and 407, and the seasonal pattern behind the annual difference.
Headline number and discussion
The stat block carries 18 points with both autonomy figures underneath. The discussion argues that the gap is about blind use rather than about how much light enters, and explains why the clerestory wins.
Conclusions, four guidance points and references
The conclusions block, a four item checked list of design guidance including specifying glare hours alongside a daylight target, and three numbered references in the left panel.

What makes this board work

The question is set in the title panel

This layout gives the left column to the title, the authors and the abstract, so the question reads at full height rather than as a line above the columns. On a board with no photographs, that panel is what stops the poster looking like a report page.

Glare is reported against daylight

Daylight autonomy alone would rank the light shelf and the clerestory as close. Adding glare hours of 172 against 96, and blind use of 24% against 11%, separates them and explains the mechanism in numbers rather than in an assertion.

A single series keeps the figure readable

Three window designs and one measure means three bars and one short series name, so the legend band under the axis never meets a tick label. The glare and blind figures stay in the results text, where they read better as pairs.

Questions people ask

What goes on an architecture research poster?

The question, the buildings or rooms studied and how they were selected, the instruments and the logging period, the measure and its threshold, the results with their spread, and the mechanism. A post occupancy poster also needs the occupant behaviour that moved the numbers, because that is usually the finding.

Can I put building photographs on a poster?

Not in every design. Seven figure blocks across the forty poster designs are photo blocks with no upload control, and they are skipped by image generation, so they cannot be filled at all. The figure on this design is a chart block, which is why the board carries data rather than images.

How long should a daylight study run?

A full year if the conclusion is about annual performance. This board logged twelve months and found that all three designs met the threshold for more than 70% of occupied hours between May and August, so the entire annual difference is earned in the four months around midsummer when glare and blind use peak.

Should a poster report glare as well as daylight?

Yes, and beside each other. Daylight autonomy alone rated the light shelf and the clerestory within five points. Glare hours of 172 against 96 and blind use of 24% against 11% is what separates them, and a blind that stays down erases the daylight a section was credited with in the model.

Why does this layout put the title down the side?

The title panel takes the left column at full height, which gives the question room to read at A0 and leaves the remaining columns for method, flow, figure and results. It suits a study whose framing is the point and whose evidence is text and numbers rather than one dominant image.

What does an A0 landscape poster export at?

The working canvas is 2,340 by 1,656 pixels and the export captures at twice that, so 4,680 by 3,312 pixels, about 100 dots per inch at full A0 size. Exports are RGB with no bleed, no crop marks and no CMYK conversion, so a print shop that requires those will prepare them.

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