Interactive selection of optimal fenestration materials for schematic architectural daylighting design

Abstract

Complex fenestration systems, such as prismatic and laser cut panels, are emerging as attractive options in architectural design thanks to their high potential to assist in energy and comfort issues. These systems can be used to redirect intense illumination from the sun but have complex transmissive properties that in turn depend on continuously changing illumination conditions due to the dynamic nature of natural light. The resulting non-intuitive interactions with the built environment make it necessary to develop tools that adequately represent these systems' behavior to the architect. The method presented in this paper enables simulation of the direct and indirect illumination from the sun and sky throughout each day for different months of the year. The user can interactively explore the high-dimensional configuration space to select optimal materials early in the design process, using both qualitative and quantitative design criteria to make adjustments.

Interactive expert support for early stage full-year daylighting design: A user's perspective on Lightsolve

“…It relies on patch-based radiosity for the sky and uses indirect illumination and shadow volumes for pixel-based shadows for direct illumination by the sun. This rendering system was validated through a set of qualitative and quantitative comparisons with Radiance and a pixel difference of less than 10% was found between LSV and Radiance for a variety of different scenes, camera positions, and daylighting conditions [22].…”

“…A hybrid global illumination method was developed for this purpose at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, called the LightSolve Viewer or LSV [22]. It relies on patch-based radiosity for the sky and uses indirect illumination and shadow volumes for pixel-based shadows for direct illumination by the sun.…”

“…Following each participant's study session, the authors constructed SketchUp models of the participant's initial and final designs and calculated the performance on all sensor planes using the LightSolve Viewer (LSV), that was specifically developed as an interactive daylight rendering engine [22].…”

State of the art in lighting simulation for building science: a literature review

“…HDR images offer the advantage of encoding colour gamut and luminance range information that is much closer to that of an original scene (Ward, 2005).  Images presenting data interpretation, as in cumulative overlays of yearly temporal performance (Andersen et al 2008, Glaser et al 2004, Mardaljevic 2003. …”

“… Lightsolve (Cutler et al 2008, Andersen et al 2008) was proposed for design exploration. It offers guidance on how some advanced fenestration systems affect a certain scenario.…”