A design methodology to consider occupants’ spatial adjustment and manage view content in adaptive façade design for improving visual comfort

Abstract

Occupants’ spatial adjustment (OSA) is one of the critical adaptive behaviours in buildings because it affects occupants’ comfort and contents of view. However, OSA for contents of view management from facade (e.g. sky, other construction, and greenery) have not been quantified to be integrated into other aspects of multi-objective building design, particularly façade design. The current study develops a design methodology and a correspondent plugin tool to incorporate OSA and content view calculation for visual comfort improvement. To this end, first, a test cell and outdoor and indoor environment were modelled, and façade geometric variables and OSA variables (location and direction of occupant’s sight) were set. After that, images were captured from hypothetical occupants’ locations inside in different directions of sight while façade transformation alternatives were recorded to the occupants’ content view images. Next, python image processing was linked to the Grasshopper modelling environment for content view analysing and quantification to be integrated into the optimisation process linked with visual comfort objectives. The designed methodology helped improve occupants’ visual comfort by optimising façade form and managing OSA for optimum daylight availability, glare minimisation, and enhancing occupants’ content view. Illuminance and discomfort glare probability (DGP), useful daylight illuminance (UDI), and spatial daylight autonomy (sDA) were used to shed light on the daylight performance of the proposed scenarios. Results demonstrated that a unique OSA and integrated façade configuration at any point in time and seasons that are suitable for the occupant’s daylight availability management, decreases perceived glare, and enhances the content view.