Transcriptive Method to Predict Daylight Intensity Curves in Architectural Spaces

Abstract

Consequences of technology evolution and its ease of use have made humans entirely dependent upon them without thinking of side effects on human's health as well as the environment, and the future. One of these technologies is artificial light, which is very important. Its excessive use, however, has led to forgetting the importance of daylight. Daylight is one of the essential strategies to save energy, and Natural light also improves livability and helps to reduce the carbon dioxide footprint. This thesis addresses the complexity of natural daylighting and the complexity in calculating light intensity by using hand calculations, building a physical model or using computer software for simulation. Additionally, a significant amount of time and resources is consumed, which in turn makes students, architects, and professionals less interested in daylight analysis. This observation prompted me to investigate a new and simple method to understand how light moves through and renders a space so that we can bring back the use of daylight in our lives. The method enhances user’s—architects, students, teachers—intuition to speculate on plotting daylight intensity curves within a space. Verification of the method is accomplished by building of a physical model and testing it at the House Energy Doctor Overcast Sky Simulator. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method an application is fully explored on a simple geometric space. The result confirmed the research that within a short period of time and without expensive means users can speculate the daylight intensity curve in any architectural space by understanding the four variables that are affecting the daylight penetration inside the space. Using this method will enhance integrating daylight into spaces for saving energy and building a better future.