Evaluation of the effect of integrating building envelopes with parametric patterns on daylighting performance in office spaces in hot-dry climate

• Main Authors: Ahmed Rashwan, Lamis El Gizawi, Sherief Sheta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-06-01
• Series: Alexandria Engineering Journal
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016819300365

In the 21st century, many contemporary architectural trends and tools such as the parametric design are having an influence the design of building envelope. The nature of the composition of the envelope’s patterns, the shape, the size and the distribution of the openings greatly affect the efficiency of daylighting within the architectural space. This research study analyses and evaluates the effects of different integrated parametric patterns on the quality of daylighting in office space through the low windows to wall ratio (WWR) that is necessary in a hot-dry climate. The daylighting performance was measured through the building performance simulation software and through actual and in situ measurements. The research study concludes that the tiling and subdivision pattern (VOR) achieves the highest performance in compliance to the recommended levels for the quality of daylighting within the office spaces compared to all basic parametric patterns, noting that there is no direct effect of the geometric basic shape of the pattern (such as circular or hexagonal shapes) on the final results of the measurements of daylighting performance. Keywords: Building envelope, Daylighting performance, Parametric patterns, Daylighting simulation, Office spaces