Scale-Model And Simulation-Based Assessments For Design Alternatives Of Daylight Redirecting Systems In A Side-Lighting Educational Room

Daylight has been proven to have positive effects on well-being, comfort and performance of occupants in buildings; it specifically increases learning performance in educational buildings. Side-lighting from one direction leads to unbalanced and insufficient illuminance, especially in large and deep spaces. A design studio at the Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH) in Urla, Turkey, has been chosen as an example of a space in such a context. Its geometrical attributes has taken to be the baseline. First, four daylight redirecting systems are applied on its 1/15 scale model to understand and compare their redirection behavior visually. Second, measurements on the scale model are taken to compare the daylight illuminance distributions. Third, to assess the overall performance in the sunny climate, illuminance and luminance maps for photorealistic visualization are calculated in monthly steps over one year. For efficient calculation of the time-steps to be considered, the daylight coefficient method has been applied. Though light ducts are found to be effective for high sun angles, in summer and equinoxes; very low illuminance in entire space make them fail in winter. Light shelves are determined to be the most convenient ones for this space, since they provided sufficient, uniform and high illuminance in equinoxes and winter.