Enhancing the Performance of Daylighting in Toplit Drawing Halls Using Diva-for-Rhino as One of the Simulation Programs: “A Case Study of Drawing Halls in Cairo, Egypt as a Hot Arid Climate”

Abstract

Several studies showed the clear relationship between the human performance inside buildings and the presence of appropriate daylight. As well known, daylighting promotes health and vitality which had been scientifically proven to improve the academic performance of students in educational buildings due to long hours spent within such spaces during the daytime. In addition to reducing or eliminating electric lighting during daytime, daylighting helps in creating a visual stimulating and productive environment for occupants.This paper aims at enhancing daylighting performance in case of existing toplit educational spaces. Daylighting simulations were conducted on a north-east oriented toplit drawing hall, located in the city of Cairo, Egypt. A plug-in used to interface Radiance and Daysim, namely Diva-for-Rhino, was used to calculate and analyze the daylight performance within the drawing hall. Divafor-Rhino is considered a highly optimized daylighting plug-in for the Rhinoceros and allows users to carry out a series of environmental performance evaluations. Several techniques were examined to enhance the daylight performance but the research focuses on the use of louvers as solar screens to control daylighting and the associated glare. Louvers when compared to other techniques have the advantage of being easily retrofitted and installed. Two different positions for the louvers were proposed and simulations were carried-out.Results showed that the Daylight Availability (DA) could be significantly enhanced using additional and retrofitted techniques by reducing the "Overlit" zone from 100% to almost 50% and keeping the ASE within the favorable limit (less than 10%).

The Effect of Parametric Patterned Façade Variations on Daylight Quality, Visual Comfort, and Daylight Performance in Architecture Studio-Based Tutoring

“…In order to understand the characteristics of daylight and to utilize its potential benefits and attributes effectively within the architectural design practice, a set of daylight performance metrics has been proposed [9]. The definition of performance metrics is quality measures of daylit buildings that help in the assessment of daylighting behavior inside the space in addition to establishing analytical comparative study between different measures [10]. This enables having a benchmark for referencing [9].…”

“…This enables having a benchmark for referencing [9]. Performance metrics are divided into two main types; Static Daylight Performance Metrics which include Illuminance (Lux) and Dynamic Daylight Performance Metrics which are also known as "Climate Based Daylight Modeling" consider the daily and seasonal variations of daylight in a given building site with respect to its quantity and character [10]. There is significant evidence to support the use of these metrics.…”

“…The final metric is Daylight glare probability (DGP) which is used to assess the visual comfort and glare aspects as a result of daylighting [10]. It is the percentage of people disturbed taking into consideration the vertical illuminance at the eye level.…”