Developing daylight devices matrix with special integration with building design process

Abstract

Daylighting is increasingly gaining awareness around the world among legislators, building owners and designers. It is considered an intrinsic part of green and sustainable building design. This momentum has induced designers and researchers to create novel and reliable daylighting technologies to reduce dependence on electric lighting and to save non-renewable energy sources. Therefore, many daylight devices have been created that are adaptable to all types of spaces and sky conditions. These devices vary from highly sophisticated technologies like holographic systems to simple windows with direct utilization of daylight.The increasing number of highly sophisticated daylight devices and the dependence of these devices on many building parameters make it hard for building designers to easily choose and utilize them. Therefore, this research presents a new matrix of daylight devices to help building designers correctly choose the most proper device in the right time during the building design process. The matrix helps identify the best daylighting devices for a specific project or space at any design stage.The selection of a device is based on specific designs and lighting requirements in addition to the problems faced by the designer. This research depends on analysing the working mechanisms of daylight devices, the design parameters that could affect a device performance in addition to design stages and process. The matrix matches daylighting devices with building design processes and stages to incorporate daylight as a fundamental design parameter.