Understanding Light in Building Skin Design

Abstract

This paper describes a design approach for discerning solar gain and assigning appropriate external shading devices. The approach includes a macro analysis locating where and when the building receives direct sunlight and locating desired interior daylighting; along with a micro analysis of how folded sun-shading motifs filter or block direct sunlight. The approach uses a collaborative analytical workflow with feedback from virtual and physical simulations informing design explorations. This iterative, reciprocating process is illustrated by student efforts to design shading structures for a building based on incident solar radiation. Designers begin with cutting and folding paper study models, then lasercut 2D tessellation patterns to create sculptural shading screens to be examined with a heliodon. Physical daylighting modeling reveals aesthetic opportunities to develop with parametric design. Motifs are then digitally modeled and analysed for shading effectiveness. Analysing the solar radiation of simple motifs helps beginners learn the software for subsequent urban situations. The efficacy of these simulations is discussed along with ways that the results could be interpreted to initiate design decisions for a building skin.

Epidermis: Algorithmic Design Based on Biomimetic Morphology

“…The paradigm of Morpho-Ecologies later evolved into the Biomimetic and Material Computation research at the ICD-ITKE in Stuttgart (Krieg et al 2011;Menges 2012;Knippers et al 2013) which took the research one step further by integrating fabrication strategy as a central component of design thinking. Along the same lines academic programs at TU Delft (Biloria and Sumini 2009), MIT (Oxman 2010), Florida Atlantic University (Vermisso 2011), University of Oregon (Cheng 2012;Cheng et al 2015), SCI-ARC (Mazzoleni 2013), Ozyegin University (Yazici 2015) and SCTE-IUL (de Oliveira et al 2018) developed this discourse into new paths, each of them placing emphasis on different aspects of the topic, addressing theory, sustainability, materials or algorithms.…”