A Computational Approach for Checking Compliance with European View and Sunlight Exposure Criteria

TL;DR

This paper introduces open-source computational workflows to systematically assess European daylight standards for building design, focusing on sunlight exposure and view criteria, using novel simulation tools and standardized methods.

Contribution

It presents the first standardized open-source workflows for verifying daylight and sunlight exposure criteria in building models, filling a gap in existing assessment methods.

Findings

Developed a novel simulation tool for compliance checks

Established systematic procedures for daylight assessment

Highlighted assumptions for robust open-source implementation

Abstract

The paper presents open-source computational workflows for assessing the "Exposure to sunlight" and "View out" criteria as defined in the European standard EN 17037 "Daylight in Buildings", issued by the European Committee for Standardization. In addition to these factors, the standard document also addresses daylight provision and protection from glare, both of which fall out of the scope of this paper. The purpose of the standard is stated as 'encouraging building designers to assess and ensure successfully daylit spaces'. The standard document proposes verification methods for performing such assessments, albeit without recommending a simulation procedure for computing the aforementioned criteria. The workflows proposed in this paper are arguably the first attempt to standardize these assessment methods using de-facto open-source standard technologies currently used in practice. The approach of this work is twofold: establish that the compliance check can be systematically performed on a 3D model by a novel simulation tool developed by the authors; and highlighting the additional assumptions that need to be implemented to build a robust and unambiguous tool within existing open-source frameworks.