Associative design for building envelopes' sun control and shading devices

In geographical locations with hot-arid climates, sun control in buildings is one primary problem to solve for the building envelope design. Today's technological advances in building science bring with them the opportunity to design dynamic façade systems for sun radiation control and daylighting. Although dynamic systems can become an attractive visual element, they can be costly and challenging to maintain for building owners. Alternatively, fixed solar-shading systems can be designed to create dynamism in the façade of the building, while providing similar functionalities for sun control. The work presented in this project focuses on the use of a visual scripting editor for modeling software, Grasshopper, to develop a Solar Control Visual Script that evaluates building envelope surfaces with planar and non-uniform rational basis-spline (NURBS) forms and provides projections for fixed sun control systems. The design platform of Grasshopper allows individuals with no experience or prior computer coding education to build up programming-like capabilities; this feature permits users to discover new design possibilities within flexible frames that can contribute to the overall design being pursued, while also having an environmental response. The Solar Control Visual Script provides minimum sizing geometries that achieve shading in openings at a particular date and time of the year. The model for this method of analysis makes use of three components to derive the appropriate values for the projections of shading geometries: typical meteorological year (TMY) data, irradiation isotropic equations and shading profile angles equations for vertical and tilted surfaces. Providing an automatic visual of generated geometries uncovers the opportunity to test several model forms and reiterates the analysis when modifying control parameters. By employing building science as a set of environmental parameters, the design outcome bears a dynamic form that responds to natural force conditions. The optimized results promote an efficient environmental design solution for sun control as an integral alternative into the building envelope.