What is the Skydome?
The SkyDome is the Welsh School of Architecture’s artificial sky and heliodon facility. Designed and constructed through funding from HEFCW, the dome was opened mid 1999. This major new facility in the department allows researchers and designers to simulate using scale models, the lighting conditions within and around their buildings. The new facility accurately simulates external natural lighting conditions; those arising from the sun, sky, and clouds, and the reflections from the ground and nearby structures. It can do so for all weather conditions, seasons, and locations. At eight metres in diameter this facility is one of the largest available. The hemispherical dome contains 640 individual luminaires, mounted within an open geodesic framework. The luminaires contain low energy compact fluorescent lamps and can be selectively dimmed to model the luminous distributions of different types of skies:- overcast, clear or mixed. A design cloudy sky, for instance, has a zenith three times
