International Journal of

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Abstract Creating suitable classrooms that can meet the educational needs of mentally-retarded students is vitally important. The present study explores the effect of three physical characteristics of classroom environment on the creativity of educable mentally-retarded children: window view, window size, and classroom size. The participants, one hundred 9-to-11-year-old girl students, took the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP). The results indicate that natural window view, larger window size (which provides a broader vision), and larger class size positively affected the creativity of the students. The findings of the study can be taken into account in designing psychology-oriented classroom environments that can improve the creativity of students.

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Daylight in classrooms is a critical factor in school design, in terms of its impact on students’ health, learning and visual performance. Providing adequate amount of evenly distributed daylight and glare prevention are important challenges in classroom design. Window configuration significantly affects the intensity and uniformity of daylight. This paper aims to investigate the effect of window configuration on daylight performance through parametric analysis. Different window configurations such as window to wall ratio, incorporating light shelves and roof monitors have been analyzed on a typical south-east facing classroom in Kashan based on results from DesignBuilder Radiance simulation which has first been validated against field measurements. Daylighting credits of green building rating tools; Leed EQ 8.1 and BREEAM HEA1 have been used as indices for evaluating and comparing different window configurations. Results show that by increasing the window-wall-ratio to 35, 40 and 50% and by installing a roof monitor, the daylight credits of the BREEAM and LEED could be achieved respectively. According to the fact that none of these window configurations have reached the standards required by both rating tools, the authors believe that a combination of installing monitor roof and light shelves and increasing window-wall-ratio may result in enhanced daylight levels.

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Orientation of classrooms is an important challenge in architectural design of a school. However, there is a lack of appropriate knowledge about influence of orientation on students’ perception of daylighting in classrooms. This paper presents a questionnaire survey that was conducted to compare students’ perception and satisfaction with daylighting in classrooms of a high school in Tabriz, Iran. Statistical analysis of responses was done to identify daylight factor and their relationships with satisfaction with daylighting in northern and southern classrooms. In southern classrooms, satisfaction with daylighting had significantly negative and positive correlation with perception of reflected and direct glare, respectively. In northern classrooms, perception of unified daylight and control of sunlight overheating by operable windows had significantly strong and positive correlation with satisfaction with daylighting, respectively. The students’ seating location had significant influence on satisfaction with daylighting and perception of direct glare in southern classrooms. In northern classrooms, students’ seating location caused different perception of reflected glare. The results showed that orientation did not lead to significant difference between satisfactions with daylighting in northern and southern classrooms. Although, in southern classrooms, the mean votes of satisfaction with daylighting was higher than northern classrooms.

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Good daylighting design in buildings not only provides a comfortable luminous environment, but also delivers energy savings and comfortable and healthy environments for building occupants. The importance of using daylight in educational buildings is because of the synchrony of operating hours of the school and daylight plenitude the sky. Daylight improves environmental quality and saves energy efficiency by minimizing artificial lighting requirements and thus reducing the cooling load. Window design is a primary sustainable approach in achieving environmental goals and contributes to comfort and satisfaction. This study analyzes the variations of annual thermal energy demand and useful daylight illuminance to determine the optimal Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) of a simulated primary school classroom in Tehran in two directions of south and north. Twelve different window sizes in two types of horizontal expanded windows (Height of the window remains constant, the width is varied) and vertical expanded windows (Width of the window remains constant, the height is varied) were compared in two parts, Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) and thermal and electricity energy, using Honeybee plugin of Grasshopper. Finding of this research reveals that vertical expanded windows are more energy-efficient in classroom while they give almost the same UDI as horizontal expanded window in both south and north facades. Generally WWR in the range of 25% to 35% in south façade has the best performance in daylight and thermal loads.

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This study conducts a thorough literature review to explore the relationship between the physical learning environment and creativity. Addressing a gap in understanding how specific attributes impact creative processes, the research aims to inform the development of innovative learning environments. Using a four-step methodology, the study involves selecting relevant articles, creating a classification framework, analyzing environmental factors' effects on learning, and interpreting findings to elucidate the correlation between physical attributes and creativity. Bibliometric analysis reveals growing scholarly interest in creative spaces. Findings emphasize the substantial impact of elements like furniture flexibility, resource accessibility, and lighting conditions on creative thinking. Key themes highlight critical factors like lighting, furniture arrangement, and diverse roles of environmental elements, contributing to enhanced cognitive performance. The study underscores the potential of optimized learning spaces to nurture creativity, promote problem-solving skills, and stimulate innovation. By enriching knowledge on the influence of physical environments on creativity, this research provides valuable insights for educators, designers, and policymakers aiming to create inspiring and effective learning environments.