Throughout history, it has been common to allow outdoor light to penetrate into buildings to provide illumination when daylight is available. This is a good approach because daylight has excellent colour qualities and is free. Paradoxically, technology developments during the 20th century led to a decline of daylight inside buildings, as electric lighting became less expensive than the effective architectural cost of daylighting. Today, further technology improvements are restoring the relative value of natural light within a building. Core Sunlighting is a method of capturing and concentrating sunlight striking a building’s envelope, and “piping” that energy to the core of the building where useful quantities of daylight would not otherwise be available. The system is costs effective, yields a more attractive indoor environment, and saves large amounts of electricity, thus saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Lorne A. Whitehead, Ph.D., P.Eng., is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia where he holds the NSERC/3M chair in applied physics. Dr. Whitehead holds more than 100 patents and has commercialized technology arising from his research both by founding several new companies and licensing others, primarily in the fields of illuminating engineering and information display. He has also held administrative roles at UBC including associate dean, dean pro tem, VP academic and provost and leader of education innovation, and has served on the boards of a number of corporate and non-profit organizations.