Borrowed lights

[Artiglio]

Evening all

I’m in the process of a conversion and have a stairwell that receives virtually no natural light, buildings listed and planners wouldn’t allow an extra rooflight or sun tube.
However several of the rooms opening onto the stair well are well lit and whilst borrowed lights are not generally something used these days , in this instance seem an obvious choice. Hopefully negating the need for artifical light in day light hours which would otherwise no doubt end up being on all day.
House will for most part only be occupied by one couple and so disturbance from others using lights on stairs at night won’t be an issue very often.
Any thoughts on this and any design ideas to make them a bit of a feature?

many thanks phil

 

[TheUnicorn]

I don't quite understand what you mean by borrowed lights , and google just gives me a shade of farrow and ball paint. Are we talking about some sort of window into the surrounding rooms, sorry for my ignorance

 

[Fitzroy]

I saw this a year or so back. Very impressive for such a situation but no idea of cost and it would have to run all day.
https://innerscene.com/
Fitz.

 

[TheUnicorn]

went a bit further with my google search and I see we are essentially just talking about internal windows. I surprised this is an option in a listed building.

 

[Doug B]

A few years ago I installed a bathroom upstairs in a very old 2 bed cottage at the top of the stairs taking space from a bedroom, there was no window & we weren’t allowed to install one so used borrowed lights at high level in the stud wall I built to form the bathroom.

It worked surprisingly well, I guess if you wanted to make it a design feature you could use stained glass etc, I’d add that I couldn’t use traditional borrowed light above the bathroom door as the stairs & landing also had no natural light.

 

[Artiglio]

The unicorn, i just googled it after your post, got the same f&b results, but as you sumise its an internal window. It would be going into a new internal partition wall and as it is a compromise with not having additional window proper is not seen as an issue.
Planning are keen to keep the exterior as close to its state when listed, but they don’t have any real records and the place has been severly messed with in its nigh on 300 year old ( site history, it’d be a brave person that pinned their reputation on saying what if anything is original) life. Place last had work done in 1980 under a listed building consent for which there are no records (according to council).
Upshot has been a design that makes the best of what’s there and gives the place a new lease of life. General approach from council has been to say no, i then present a case for the suggested changes , referencing the existing building and its likely development over the years. But planners are a contrary lot, i put in to replace the exisitng very badly build and rotted rooflights which currently stand proud of the roof and have done since they were put in (late 60’s is my guess) council want the replacements to be flush, go figure. Makes no difference to me.

 

[Artiglio]

Cheers Doug, i’ll have a measure up and see how they would work using some of the existing moulding profiles.

 

[TheUnicorn]

I've always liked glass bricks, not that they fit in everywhere of course

 

[TRITON]

There is a borrowed light system that consists of a mirrored tube the light shines down multiplying it so it acts like a strong lamp.

Ill see if i can find an example...

Also called a sun tunnel
Pic.

 

[TheUnicorn]

There is a borrowed light system that consists of a mirrored tube the light shines down multiplying it so it acts like a strong lamp.

Ill see if i can find an example...

Also called a sun tunnel
Pic.

a sun tunnel was ruled out in the first post, because of it being a listed building

 

[Doug71]

My house was originally a Victorian school, I was in a similar situation to you because we didn't want to put any rooflights in the front elevation although this meant one end of the upstairs hallway would be a bit gloomy. Same as you the bedrooms get ample light so I thought about internal windows or glazed doors etc but wasn't really keen on the idea so didn't put any in. The solution for me is simply to leave one of the bedroom doors open during the day which lets light in to the hallway, works for me might not be the solution for you though.

 

[Sandyn]

In my house, I have a back hall, which was an addition to the house when mods were made about 1900, so in the days of gas lighting and lighting was a problem. Basically they put a partition wall in what was a bedroom, but put a high level leaded window and a window in the door. It works very well and has never been an issue, The room is now a study, with the hall running along side. It provides daylight to a hall which would be very dark otherwise. I suppose these days it is less important with almost full spectrum LED lights available. I do like natural light though.

 

[Artiglio]

Thanks for the replies, leaving doors open would work however the layout is a bit odd and could end up with 3 plus open , whilst leds are cheap to run and give good light, you lose the changing light through the day and over the seasons and to my mind things get a bit sterile ( can’t think of a better word just now), plus what will be the main bedroom has windows on 3 aspects (east, south and west) and so offersplenty of light over the whole day.
Glass bricks would offer a different feel, but i also need to give 30 mins of fire protection and a quick search only shows plainish bricks that are fire rated. But a bit more searching might throw up further options.