Research Design Connection: Daylighting in the City
Saratsis and his colleagues have developed an important resource for individuals concerned about human access to daylight in urban environments. The Saratsis team reports that “Increasing urban density leads to a conflict between space-use efficiency and daylight access…it is now possible to quantify the performance of detailed design proposals before construction…A simulation-based daylighting analysis procedure reveals the capabilities for both formulating more nuanced prescriptive zoning rules as well as for use by design teams. The procedure is used to evaluate the daylighting performance of 50 block typologies…The analysis demonstrates that certain urban massing approaches (e.g., pencil towers on a contextual base) outperform conventional massing strategies. A…case study application of an actual city block shows that innovative urban massings can improve access to daylight for the massing itself as well as for neighbouring buildings…The fact that a simulation-based approach may yield significantly larger buildable areas than current regulations suggests that design …
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