VR For Daylight

Daylighting is often an important component of architectural design and heavily influenced by a building’s facade and enclosure systems. Unlike many architectural elements, daylighting is dynamic, changing constantly throughout the day and year, which can make it difficult to visualize for clients and even designers. There are several tools, both physical and digital, available for daylighting design and analysis, but they can be cumbersome and slow to provide feedback. A case study is presented in which Virtual Reality (VR) was used to contextualize graphical data from a simulated glare analysis and to present the findings to the client. Initial glare analysis was conducted using a daylighting software to evaluate critical occupant viewpoints for multiple design options. Simulations resulted in graphs of annual Daylight Glare Probability (DGP). While these graphs are useful to identify times of potential glare, they do not provide visual or timely feedback to the designer, so the project team decided to use a Virtual Reality environment to bridge this gap. Once the virtual building was set to accurate coordinates, the custom VR environment allowed for visualization of daylight and shadows in the building from any viewpoint in real-time. The designer was able to adjust the sun’s position by month, day, and hour, providing an accurate prediction of the sun’s position on any date and time. The VR environment was also set up to toggle between design options without delay. This is in comparison to rendering each iteration of viewpoint and time of year, which can be time-consuming depending on the quality and size of the image. In addition, the project team was able to use the VR environment to convey design recommendations to the client in a clear, visual manner. Use of Virtual Reality as a tool to enhance daylighting analysis allowed for faster, better informed design decisions to be made and a clearer method of presenting these decisions to the client.