Evaluating the visual comfort of Orosi windows in hot and semi-arid climates through climate-based daylight metrics: a quantitative study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Proper design and appropriate configuration of daylight systems, as the primary means of controlling and distributing daylight, greatly improve the visual comfort and reduce energy consumption. Daylight systems are widely used around the world, controlling the light distribution in interior spaces; in residential buildings, vertical windows are the most common ones. Iranian architecture has been using a traditional daylight system for over centuries: the Orosi window. This research investigates how the Orosi elements affect visual comfort, based on climate-based daylight metrics. Results show that the tinted glasses have the potential to control the quality of the light that is transmitted into the interior space. Besides, frames have the potential to increase the UDI while keeping the overall illuminance of the space within the specific range. Furthermore, glass shapes, and consequently frame shapes, and the way they are scattered on the surface have the potential to control the way that light enters the interior space; therefore, they homogenize it by decreasing the illuminance differences between central, frontal, and side zones of the space.