Daylight supports multiple visual and non-visual needs. With occupants spending significant portions of day indoors, lack of daylight can lead to circadian disruption and other adverse effects. Even for buildings with external views, blinds tend to be closed at first instances of glare and often not reopened. Additionally, the use of electric light during daylit hours has energy implications....
The awareness about the non-visual effects of lighting plays an important role in all building types, both residential and non-residential, and a new term, ‘integrative light’, was introduced within the CIE to combine the photopic and melanopic effects on the health and comfort of the occupants of indoor spaces. Integrative lighting is particularly crucial in educational buildings, as it...
Designing architectural façades that allow sufficient daylight to create visually comfortable and pleasant environments is a challenging aspect of building design as it requires to account for visual comfort and discomfort glare risks, and understand the factors that influence them. Amongst the key factors that contribute to one’s perception of discomfort glare, we find the quality and...
Circadian rhythms are internal manifestations of the solar day that allow adaptations to environmental temporal changes. Mood disorders are often associated with disrupted circadian clock-controlled responses, while disruption of circadian rhythms is correlated with jet lag, night-shift work, or exposure to artificial light at night. Modern lifestyles patterns lead to a disruption in the...
With the increasing number of hot days in the cooling season, a correct use of semi-transparent façade systems to face healthy requirements and ensure comfortable indoor situations is of enormous importance. Thus, a well-planned façade system must fulfill the essential tasks of summer overheat protection through intelligent shading as well as visual requirements such as daylight utilization...
Optimizing the thermal and lighting conditions in office rooms for each worker individually tends to be an expensive task in terms of both planning and operation. An workplace-individual lighting module (IndiLight module – ILM) facilitating this task has been developed and will be introduced in this work and compared to state of the art façade control strategies. To minimize the installation...
The Collaborative Research Centre 1244 at the University of Stuttgart interdisciplinary investigates adaptive building skins and structures to reduce resource consumption in building construction as well as energy consumption in building operation and increase occupant comfort.
Switchable membrane cushion constructions are the focus of the investigation, as they provide a considerable...
This presentation focuses on a case study of an existing building in central Athens, which is undergoing transformation into a new office space. The work embodies a collaborative effort between Transsolar and DECA Architecture, with an ambitious goal to address the challenge of daylight access and visual comfort in established urban structures.
The city center of Athens, with its densely...
The problem is that daylight is often only integrated into architecture in individual aspects and not in its full bandwidth. As a result, it cannot develop many of its qualities.
We have to acknowledge, that daylight is a holistic entity, inseparably interwoven in all aspects of life.
I present a structured entity of different approaches to natural light in architecture and urban planning....
This presentation revolves around the renovation of an old farm in Marvao, Portugal, transformed into a residential complex. This case study signifies a collaborative effort between Transsolar and DECA Architecture, aiming to simulate the Komorebi effect—a Japanese term denoting the interplay of sunlight streaming through the leaves of trees—within the redesigned space.
Our methodology...
The presentation examines the effect of daylight control systems on the interior user by means of completed projects. Time-lapse videos will be shown of how the sun models the illumination of the interior over the course of a day, taking into account the position of the sun.
In order to make these optical, design effects comprehensible, the mirror optics of the light control systems and the...
Multi-objective optimization provides a Pareto front, representing a set of optimal design solutions that balance multiple design objectives. Multi-objective optimization often involves iterative simulations and evaluations of numerous design alternatives. However, evaluating multi-objective optimized solutions is challenging due to the time-consuming nature of building performance simulation....
The design of common spaces within urban environments is crucial for creating vibrant and inclusive communities. This research paper explores the potential of leveraging daylight metrics as tools to enhance the quality of common spaces, with a specific focus on user experience and social dynamics. The study includes case studies in two diverse cities, Bangkok and Zurich, to examine the role of...
Windows play a crucial role in enhancing daylight, providing views, and ensuring occupant comfort in buildings. However, their benefits come at the expense of increased energy consumption. This research aims to address this challenge by combining 360° image-based lighting assessments with 360° thermal imaging in post-occupancy environmental (POI) evaluations, specifically targeting extreme...
