# **Appendix 8.10.**

# 

# Daylight in Buildings: 15 Case Studies from Around the World

Daylighting strategies in more than 30 non-residential buildings around
the world have been studied in IEA Task 21 at two levels. While the
"Survey of Architectural Solutions" (Appendix 8.7) describes daylighting
strategies, 14 selected case study buildings and one design case study
have been monitored and evaluated in detail in the book *Daylight in
Buildings: 15 Case Studies from Around the World*. The monitoring
campaign in all 14 buildings was based on common monitoring procedures.
In five buildings, post occupancy evaluations have been performed.
Information on how to obtain a copy of this book can be found on the IEA
SHC website: <http://www.iea-shc.org/task21/>.

The latitude varies from 19°S in tropical Australia to 64°N in Norway.
Buildings for commercial and educational purposes as well as museums,
libraries and research-centres have been included. Daylighting
strategies using skylight and sidelight, some of them using innovative
daylighting systems, others using conventional shading systems or
depending on purely architectural daylighting design features have been
investigated. All case study buildings have been constructed or
refurbished later than 1990.

In 9 case study buildings, office-type rooms have been selected for
monitoring. Cellular offices, group offices and open plan offices are
among the selected spaces. Four educational buildings have been
monitored; in these buildings, classrooms and seminar rooms were
selected. In most of the selected spaces, side-lighting strategies were
applied; three skylight strategies have been monitored.

In some of the case study buildings, the focus is on the evaluation of
advanced daylighting systems, such as light directing glass at Geyssel,
or holographic light guiding glass in the ADO building. One major issue
of monitoring in the Bayer Building is the user reaction to the
non-retractable blinds that have been applied. The post-occupancy
evaluation \[Hygge and Löfberg 1999\] showed that the occupants were not
satisfied with the shading system generally: they complained that the
shading blocks the view out.

Most case study buildings were equipped with advanced electric lighting
controls. Monitoring in the Nortel Research Centre as well as in the
Solar Energy Research Facility (SERF) showed that the location of
sensors and the adjustment of controls needed careful consideration in
order to realise predicted energy savings. In the Götz building, both
electric lighting and facade systems are controlled by a building energy
management system. The Götz building has a fully glazed double skin
facade with integrated louver blinds.

Some of the case study buildings such as the Environmental Office of the
Future and Green on the Grand represent an overall approach to low
energy architecture and have been monitored extensively. The selected
space in the Environmental Office of the Future is an open plan office,
where the south facade is equipped with motorised louvers backed up with
manually controlled roller blinds to protect from glare. Monitoring here
as well as in other examples showed the impact of user behaviour on the
performance of daylighting strategies.

The Zehdenick School represents an architectural approach to daylight.
Classrooms have a bilateral daylighting strategy, fixed systems control
solar gains, a movable device controls glare. The comparison of two
electric lighting control strategies showed that daylight responsive
controls in this case did not save energy when compared to the reference
system.

The Park Ridge Primary School in Melbourne and the SERF are located in
sunny climates where overheating during summer is a major design issue.
The design of the Park Ridge Primary School uses "tunnel" lights
consisting of an exterior shade, an opening and internal deflectors to
shade direct sunlight but to distribute daylight to the classrooms.

In the Bobst-Mex factory. a large workshop with north-facing sheds is
the selected space. Monitoring results show details about the
performance of this widely-used industrial daylighting scheme.

Some of the selected buildings use further developments of conventional
daylighting systems, such as the dual interior shade in the Professional
Faculties or the blinds integrated in the window pane used in the Bayer
Nordic Headquarter.

Innovative daylight redirecting systems that are evaluated in the Source
Book on Daylighting Systems have been applied in some case studies.
Lightshelves are a design feature in the SERF building, light guiding
glass is used at Geyssel, holographic elements have been applied in the
ADO building, mirrored angular selective lamellas are integrated in the
atrium glazing of the Zehdenick school. In the Environmental Office of
the Future and in the EOS Building, motorised louvers are used to adjust
the daylight level. The Survey of Architectural Solutions includes some
more buildings using innovative daylighting systems. The Waterford
school in Brisbane, Australia, has angular selective skylights that use
laser cut panels. The Centre for Desert Architecture in Cairo, Egypt
uses hologram glass to redirect daylight.