This investigation establishes how the architecture of an exhibition space affects the quality and quantity of natural and artificial lighting reaching its exhibits. These in turn affect people's visual performance and total perception of the exhibition space.

The architecture of the space in this case refers to: Its space geometry; characteristic qualities of its surfaces and adjacent surfaces: reflectance, absorbance and transmittance; its fenestrations: size position and orientation. Quantity refers to amounts of light and quality refers to its formgiving effects on objects, colour revealing effects on surfaces, and whether it creates variety, is focused, or is spread.