Lighting plays a fundamental role in learning spaces as it influences students’ performance. Nowadays, new technologies and new teaching methods in higher education mean that very different visual tasks are performed in the classroom, so further research is necessary to identify what lighting is best suited to these new tasks. The objective of the study is to analyse the impact that variations in levels of illuminance and Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) of classrooms have on the cognitive functions (attention and memory) of university students. The cognitive performance of 90 participants was evaluated based on attention and memory tasks. The participants had to view nine virtual classroom configurations, with three different illuminance settings (100 lx, 300 lx and 500 lx) and three CCTs (3000 K, 4000 K and 6500 K). The results showed that attention and memory tasks require different level of illumination. While attention improves with higher light levels, memory improves with lower light levels. Higher CCTs generate better performance in both attention and memory tasks. These results highlight the link between lighting and students’ cognitive responses. This study and its methodology can be useful for architects and researchers as they establish lighting design guidelines capable of improving students’ cognitive processes.

The effect that the physical characteristics of urban design have on the pedestrian’s perceptions of safety is a fundamental aspect of city planning. This is particularly so with street crossings, where the pedestrian has to make a decision. This paper analyses how pedestrians are affected by number of traffic lanes, lighting colour temperature, and nearby vegetation as they cross roads. Perceptions of safety were quantified by means of the psychological and neurophysiological responses of 60 participants to 16 virtual reality scenarios (4 day and 12 night), based on existing urban design variables. The results showed differences between night-time and daytime scenarios, which suggests that there is a need to analyse both situations. As to the design guidelines, it was observed that safety is improved by reducing the number of traffic lanes and nearby vegetation, and by using a lighting colour temperature of 4500 K. However, the analysis of the variables showed that combined effects produce different results to those obtained from the analysis of individual elements. This result is essential information for urban managers in their assessments of whether particular interventions will improve crossing points.

The dry Mediterranean climate (BShs) is the European region with the highest number of hours of sunshine per year. The high annual solar radiation makes sun shading devices necessary to comply with current energy efficiency standards. However, these standards do not sufficiently consider their effect on the indoor lighting comfort of buildings. The objective is to qualitatively and quantitatively determine how movable sun shading devices jointly influence the energy efficiency, thermal comfort and lighting comfort of buildings in BShs climate. The scientific novelty of the work consists of demonstrating the limitations of the sun shading systems commonly used in southeastern Spain and determining the optimal technical solution in this climate to simultaneously improve thermal and lighting comfort. This research comparatively studies the influence of various movable sun shading systems on the daylighting and thermal performance of an educational building. This study conducted on-site measurements, user surveys and computer simulations to study how to improve the thermal and lighting performances of the building. This work demonstrates that interior solar shading provides little improvement in thermal comfort and reduces the cooling demand by only 25%. External movable sun shading improves thermal comfort and reduces the cooling demand by more than 60%, but only adjustable blinds or awnings achieve adequate and homogeneous illuminance values as they diffuse daylight. The paper concludes that energy efficiency standards should be modified to ensure adequate lighting comfort in buildings.