Mary Ann Steane

Mary Ann Steane is an architect by training and a senior lecturer in environmental design in architecture. Her research on the use of natural light in buildings has looked closely at the range of factors that affect perception of the visual environment, examining closely the narratives architects construct concerning light during design development. In connection with these studies, she collaborated with Professor Koen Steemers on the 2004 edited volume 'Environmental Diversity in Architecture', and  subsequently on an AHRC funded project, 'Designing with Light in Libraries'. Her 2011 monograph, 'The Architecture of Light'

reviewed daylighting design principles and their architectural interpretation across the period in which electricity has been an alternative energy source for the lighting of buildings. This concern with visual perception is allied to an interest in how architects learn to interpret their surroundings by acquiring embodied as well as abstract knowledge. Having established a fruitful decade-long dialogue on this topic with teachers at the Valparaíso School, Chile, she has collaborated successfully with them on a 2010 UK exhibition, ŒPaseo', which explored the theme of openness and its enactment through design, and a series of academic papers on the school¹s innovative approach to architectural education.