Window Design IV

Architecture Design

Below we will develop a brief study on the position and spacing between windows. So far we have conducted three previous notes, as follows:

Window Design III

Window Design II

Window Design I

In previous posts we have studied how the area and position of the window affects the daylight in a room. As we know, the amount of light that comes into a room is directly proportional to the surface of the window. We also know that as higher the window lintel, the deeper the light.

A study to develop is the spacing between windows. We are going to observe the office model where different vertical windows are located. The window is resized, keeping the height of the lintel and varying the spacing between the jambs:

As we can see, the windows that are located far apart leave dark areas between them, causing uneven illumination. Moreover, the closer windows allow greater uniformity of light.

Accordingly, we conclude that the optimal spacing between windows is ½ the height of the lintel. If the windows are separated more than that distance, dark areas occur. If the windows spacing is less than that measure, the uniformity is preserved.

This work has been developed by the New Buildings Institute, which has done a great job in collaboration with the University of Idaho and Washington. My sincere congratulations for this study.

I hope that with this final note we will know more about the design of windows. Much remains to be discovered, such as how to quantify light produced by a window, but these issues will develop in future extensive notes.

Greetings:

Window Design III

Architecture Design

I propose to delve a bit more in, probably, the most important architectural element in daylighting: the window. So far we have made two previous notes, as follows:

Window Design II

Window Design I

We will develop the study of the height of the window and how it influences in daylight. Below we can see the model of an office where a longitudinal window is located. The window size is changing from 10% of the façade surface to 75%:

As can be seen, the windows that are between 10 and 20% of the façade surface (equivalent to 4 and 8% of the floor area) hardly provide enough natural lighting.

A window which occupies between 30% and 40% of the façade surface (equivalent to 12 and 16% of the floor surface) achieves an acceptable illuminance, since approximately half of the office is over 300 lux. Windows of larger sizes allows higher luminance. This is shown in false color map that measures the reflected luminance:

Note that the higher the window lintel, the deeper the light, as we deducted in Window Design I.

This work has been developed by the New Buildings Institute, which has done a great job in collaboration with the University of Idaho and Washington. My sincere congratulations for this study.

We will continue studying the windows in the next notes.