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Daylight simulation

Daylight determines whether a room is suitable as a habitable room, how much artificial light it needs over the year and how a change of use is to be assessed. The calculation is done on the model: room geometry, window areas, reveal depths, glazing, external shading.

When the need arises

  • Change of use, for example from office to residential, when the quality of the living space has to be demonstrated
  • Refurbishment involving work on the facade or the window areas
  • Lighting design, when the need for artificial light is to be assessed realistically
  • Certification, when daylight provision is assessed

Where the data comes from

This service works with geometry: areas, heights, openings, orientation, component build-ups. In a new build the design model supplies those figures. In an existing building it does not exist, and that is the usual blocker.

We collect those foundations during the as-built survey anyway. The same survey that produces floor plans and the room book also yields the values used in these calculations. No second visit and no second data collection are needed.

  • As-built data capture – the survey this builds on
  • Scan-to-BIM – the as-built model, when figures are to be computed rather than estimated
  • DIN 277 – the areas that feed into almost every one of these calculations

Why existing buildings differ from new builds here

In a new build, window formats and reveals are in the model. In an existing building they are, at best, in a plan dating from its construction, and that plan shows the opening as it was designed, not as it is today. Replaced windows, altered parapets and openings that have since been filled in are the rule, not the exception.

The survey solves this because it measures the current state. Window height, window width and clear room height are among the details we record for each room anyway.

More in this group

These services build on the same survey. Anyone who needs one of them usually needs a second.