Building Glass Block as An Alternative Material for Natural Lighting in the Classroom of Raudatul Atfal Islam Terpadu Al-Uswah Without Distracting Children’s Concentration Due to Wide Openings

Abstract

Kindergarten is a formal education pathway for early childhood aged 4-6 years. Creating a comfortable classroom for learning as well as playing is one of the efforts to support good quality education. A room with adequate lighting is one of solution to create a comfortable classroom for learning and playing. The general solution to overcome this is to create a wide opening so that 250 lux light this is a Indonesian Nasional Standard (SNI class lighting) can enter the classroom. On the other hand, a wide opening has the potential to break the concentration of studenta because it can make children often look out of the window so that the concentration of student learning is disturbed. The comfort of learning and reading is important in the classroom. Optimizing natural lighting is the best solution to provide comfortable learning and reading for students. Therefore, this study aims to ensure that natural lighting enters the classroom by standardizing the use of the classroom (250 lux) in order to maximize reading comfort even better by changing the wall material to glass blocks as a means to enter natural light. So that, the incoming light can be in accordance with existing standards. Glass block is a good material for bringing natural light into the classroom without introducing a visual environment into the classroom. This is to keep the children focused on learning in class. This research was conducted using the literature study method and quantitative descriptive analysis obtained from direct observation and then simulated with the DiaLux evo 9.2 software. The simulation results show that there are several spots that do not meet the SNI standard. The recommendation given is to add glass blocks at several points in the classroom. Each class gets sufficient lighting.