SKY DISTRIBUTION
Site Designer
This web app extends my dynamic daylighting tool to bring shading, solar radiation and view analysis to the level of an entire site rather than just a single room. It uses the same framework and infrastructure as the daylight tool, but with some more interesting snapping, editing and model generation functions. This means that it uses the same block-optimised ray-tracing routines, so the geometry is still limited to axially-aligned rectilinear blocks. However, I have added an experimental constructive solid geometry (CSG) model to automatically merge intersecting blocks into more complex shapes so that the intersecting edges are not shown. Another distinguishing feature is the ability to add multiple analysis grids, both flat and volumetric, and to automatically fit them to selected surfaces or volumes.
Dynamic Daylighting
Of all my web-based apps, this is the first to come close to my original concept of a deeply interactive and playful tool that addresses all the complexities involved in a particular design and analysis process. This app investigates real-time dynamic daylight analysis within a simple rectangular room based on detailed sky distributions. The room size, windows, external shading devices and work plane height can all be interactively manipulated with the internal daylight distribution updating in real time. You can add any number of windows, external shading devices or site obstructions, and experiment with different surface reflectances and window transmittances.
Sky Distribution
This article discusses the processes involved in determining the luminous distribution of daylight and solar radiation over the skydome in order to accurately account for the effects of shading and reflections in and around a building site. It looks at the mathematical models used and their implementation, as well as some of the issues associated with aggregating multiple skies over longer periods.