Research in daylighting focuses on increasing how much natural light we can use in buildings, so as to decrease energy consumption for lighting, heating and cooling, improve comfort and well-being, generate aesthetical value, and provide a connection to the outside. Current projects aim at providing more support for design, open up technological innovations, refine daylighting metrics, and overall, bring more daylighting inside ... in a better way.
Lightsolve aims at developing a highly innovative computational tool for daylighting design in the early stages by filling niches that are still absent in existing simulation tools. These niches include: employing an inverse approach (starting from goals to achieve), developing new, climate-based metrics for daylighting performance assessment and proposing a highly visual interface while keeping interactive exploration possible.
The automated Heliodon is a design tool for sunlighting analysis with physical models. It consists of a computer-controlled rotating platform, a fixed light source and an interface for digital image capture and can reproduce any sun angle or sequence of sun angles (over the course of a day e.g.) at any given location.
The portable Heliodon is a design and educational tool for sunlight and daylight penetration studies outdoors, using scale models. The model is fixed on a small table that has three degrees of freedom and a set of sun dials and sun charts are used to manually orient the model so as to reproduce specific conditions in the intended building location.
The Heliodome is meant to become a leading-edge device in bidirectional goniophotometer measurements, combining time-efficiency and a spectral analysis over an extended wavelength range for an improved control of solar radiation with advanced fenestration systems. It is based on digital imaging and on using ellipsoid geometry for optimal light collection and detection.
Creating a Database of Light Interacting Technologies for Envelopes (D-LITE) will allow designers to get access to a free, on-line space of reference where the most advanced façade materials and light-redirecting systems are explained from an architectural point of view. The idea is to promote awareness to these technologies and make the search process easier and supported by intuitive information.
In terms of building envelope materials, the future lies in smart glazing, automated shading and spectrally or angularly selective (i.e. light-redirecting) materials to optimize solar control and light distribution in buildings. While spectrally selective materials such as low-e coatings have already enabled great energy benefits, additional savings and increased visual comfort can be expected from angularly selective materials.
Recent findings in photobiology show that our circadian system, as well as other essential functions of our body, responds to light with a sensitivity that differs from our visual system. Research is being conducted with the Harvard Medical School to refine design guidelines for architectural spaces so as to incorporate these findings and combine them with visual comfort criteria.
The question of daylighting metrics has become a key design issue to solve in today’s environmental context: what kind of metrics would be appropriate to provide a comprehensive yet condensed assessment of the daylighting performance of a space? To answer this need, important efforts are being made to come up with alternative ways to quantify daylight on an annual basis.
Within a 12 by 14 feet dark chamber, optical experiments, materials characterization and scale model studies can be conducted in a well controlled environment. The experimental equipment of the lab includes integrating spheres, a monochromator, spectro-, luminance- and illuminance-meters, filters and reflectance standards, digital cameras, and others.
