Analyzing and Improving Natural Daylight in Educational Buildings Using Skylights, Victoria International School of Sharjah as a Case Study

Abstract

Due to the great importance of natural daylight in interior spaces, architects keep experimenting different techniques to achieve a good luminous environment. One of the techniques used in building design is the skylight. This study focuses on the impact of the skylight on internal spaces in schools with regards to daylight factor, glare, and cooling loads. Thirteen simulation cases, including the existing case, were simulated and analyzed using several software packages such as Revit, Ecotect and Radiance. The thirteen cases are categorized into three main groups: A, B, and C. Each category has set some fixed parameters in order to reach an optimum design compared with the existing case. After conducting the simulation and analysis, the sub-cases of Group-A failed to achieve a good luminous environment and therefore the results were rejected due to the large increment in cooling load. On the other hand, the sub-cases of Group-B showed considerable improvement in the cooling loads, but some of these cases had caused glare in the space. The sub-cases of Group-C were better than of those in Group-B. Herein, some of the results of this study were satisfactory compared with the existing case study. However, one of the cases in Group-B had the optimum case among the examined cases where all the results are within the accepted range.