Vandal Studio · Integrated Design Lab · University of Idaho
More windows
won’t fix the light.
LUMEN is the interactive studio behind the Daylighting Multipliers program — it shows you the moves that multiply daylight deeper into a space (orientation, window tuning, light shelves, skylights) without trading away comfort or chasing glare.
What you’ll work through
Six places the daylight details decide the outcome
Each one is the difference between a space that simply has windows and one that genuinely harvests daylight — the kind that earns energy-code and utility-incentive credit.
What actually counts
A daylit room and a daylight-harvesting room are not the same thing in the eyes of code or incentives. Learn where the line sits.
Let form follow the sun
Read a sun-path diagram for your latitude and shape the building around how light, heat, and shadow actually move across the year.
View glass vs. daylight glass
Split an opening into a view zone and a daylight zone, and size and place it for depth into the room — not just wall area.
Bounce light deeper
Throw daylight onto the ceiling to push the daylit zone further in, while keeping summer sun and direct glare under control.
Reach the core
Bring top light into the middle of a plan, where side windows give up — sized and detailed to spread evenly, not spotlight.
Site, context & form
The early decisions — obstructions, width, orientation, circulation — that quietly make or break performance before any glazing is chosen.
The LUMEN studio
Drag a slider. Watch the room change.
In LUMEN, a daylit room is one equation and one picture. Move any input — window-to-wall ratio, glazing, room depth, a light shelf, the time of day — and see instantly what it does to the light, mapped onto the same comfort bands above.
A connected studio across three scopes — site, building, and room — covering daylight factor, shading and light shelves, toplighting, annual daylight (sDA/ASE), and electric-lighting energy and code.
Who it’s for
Built for the people specifying the building
Architects, engineers, lighting designers, and building owners in Idaho Power’s service area — offered as part of the IDL’s technical design assistance and project-based training.