STRUCTURAL GLASS FACADES - USC School of Architecture

competency with the tool, as the development of drawings is fundamental to their work.
Other functions may be less so. An example is daylighting, which involves the optimization of
natural lighting in commercial buildings so as to reduce the need for artificial lighting (with
resultant energy savings), the provision of adequate light levels to support work functions to
as large an area as possible, and the control of direct sunlight and glare.
Most architects would agree that this is an important function. Yet many of them do not
incorporate daylighting design in their practice. There are sophisticated design tools,
software programs, to facilitate daylighting design, such as Radiance, a highly accurate raytracing
program developed by the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory and supported by
the US Department of Energy. However, both the subject and the tools are complex,
requiring a significant investment on the part of the designer to develop competency with the
issues and the tools. Many architects simply do not have the time. An alternative is to hire a
specialty consultant to provide the services. This will impact the design budget, and still will
require coordination by the architect. Christopher Reinhart (2004, p.1) comments:
“With a rapidly developing knowledge base, architects rely more than ever on solid
performance measures to support their design decisions. Yet many aspects of design
compete for the team's attention. In today's competitive environment, the value of
information gained through any one simulation tool must be constantly weighed against the
time and financial resources required.”
Daylighting as a design consideration does not lend itself to wizard type design tools.
Something between a wizard and a program such as Radiance may be able to open up the
practice of daylighting design to a new tier of adopters. Reinhart again:
“Because daylighting is such an important feature of virtually all sustainable buildings and
because its quality and quantity are difficult to predict and evaluate through simple rules of
thumb, there is a need for daylighting software with a high rate of acceptance and adoption
by design professionals.”
Reinhart is promoting a daylighting program called “Lightswitch Wizard” (now Daylight 1-2-3)
developed by the Lighting Group at the National Research Council Canada (NRC), in
partnership with the Buildings Group at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). The tool is
available by free download from a dedicated web resource (Daylight 1-2-3 2008). The
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