Passive Daylighting Design Strategies of Colonial Mosques in Malaysia

This study aims to investigate the daylight performance of Colonial Mosques in Malaysia. The first objective of this study is to identify passive daylighting strategies from the colonial mosques. The second objective of this study is to evaluate the daylight performance of the colonial mosques. The research methodology consisted of table research, field observation, and daylight analysis simulation of the prayer hall in the Colonial Mosques, using Sefaira daylighting simulation software. The results have shown that the daylight in Colonial Mosques was affected by the building orientation, shading elements, window to wall ratio, and window type. It was also found that the clerestory window type enhances indoor daylight performance. Keywords: Passive Daylighting, Colonial Mosques. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI:

Evaluating the Effect of External Horizontal Fixed Shading Devices’ Geometry on Internal Air Temperature, Daylighting and Energy Demand in Hot Dry Climate. Case Study of Ghardaïa, Algeria

The present study investigates the effect of fixed external shading devices’ geometry on thermal comfort, daylighting and energy demand for cooling and heating in the hot and dry climate of the city of Ghardaïa (Algeria). A parametric analysis was performed by using three software: RADIANCE 2.0 and DAYSIM 3.1 for daylighting simulation and TRNSYS.17 for thermal dynamic simulation. Three shading device parameters were assessed: the spacing between slats, the tilted angle and the slats installation. The vertical shading angle “VSA” is fixed; it is equal to the optimum shading angle measured for Ghardaïa. The simulation results indicate that fixed external shading devices have a significant impact on decreasing the energy demand for cooling; however, they are unable to reduce the total energy demand since they significantly increase heating loads. It was found that fixed external shading devices remove all risks associated with glare in summer by decreasing illuminance close to the window; however, they do not improve daylighting performance in winter because of glare. We note that even if the vertical shading angle “VSA” was the same for all cases, these did not present the same thermal and luminous behavior. This is mainly due to the amount and the way that the solar radiation penetrates space.

Biomimetic Kinetic Shading Facade Inspired by Tree Morphology for Improving Occupant’s Daylight Performance

Many recent studies in the field of the kinetic façade developed the grid-based modular forms through primary kinetic movements which are restricted in the simple shapes. However, learning from biological analogies reveals that plants and trees provide adjustable daylighting strategies by means of multilayered and curvature morphological changes. This research builds on a relevant literature study, observation, biomimicry morphological approach (top-down), and parametric daylighting simulation to develop a multilayered biomimetic kinetic façade form, inspired by tree morphology to improve occupants’ daylight performance. The first part of the research uses a literature review to explore how biomimicry influences the kinetic façade’s functions. Then, the study applies the biomimicry morphological approach to extract the formal strategies of tress due to dynamic daylight. Concerning functional convergence, the biomimicry principles are translated to the kinetic façade form configuration and movements. The extracted forms and movements are translated into the design solutions for the kinetic façade resulting in the flexible form by using intersected-multilayered skin and kinetic vectors with curvature movements. The comprehensive annual climate-based metrics and luminance-based metric simulation (625 alternatives) confirm the high performance of the bio-inspired complex kinetic façade for improving occupants’ daylight performance and preventing visual discomfort in comparison with the simple plain window as the base case. The kinetic façade provides daylight performance improvement, especially the best case achieves spatial Daylight Autonomy, Useful Daylight Illuminance, and Exceed Useful Daylight Illuminance of 50.6, 85.5, 7.55 respectively.

Simulation of Different Light Well Typology by using Daylight Rules of Thumb under Overcast and Intermediate Skies without Sun

The daylight conditions that are fit for an interior can be easily achieved by applying the simple and comprehensive principles, the daylighting rules of thumb in the process design. In architecture, these rules can be expressed in a different kinds of modes and are divided into categories that based on the parameters which constitute them. Since daylighting is the control admission of natural light, one of the categories can be the light well topology. Thus, an opening plays an important role in influencing the effectiveness of daylight distribution in building. One of the categories is light well typology. This study was conducted using an existing sample of single side opening and two side opening light wells with the comparison of additives to light-well typology under under overcast and intermediate skies without sun also to proposes daylighting rules of thumb for light wells. There are several types of light wells simulated for daylighting performances in this study. Light well models were simulated by conducted using IES_VE application software. Regression analysis was then carried out to find correlation between the measurements obtained in the daylighting simulation and the calculations derived from an established daylighting formula. Thus, existing daylighting formula is modified to create new daylighting rules of thumb for light wells with reflectance mirror in single storey terrace houses. These simple equations can serve as rules of thumb to help architects and engineers in calculating daylight levels for different light well designs.