Projeto de iluminação natural: ferramentas para cálculo e avaliação

Abstract

Decisions made by the architect during the initial stages of design have a huge impact upon the building’s luminous performance. There are several existing tools to aid the architect during design, which are capable of performing calculations and evaluating natural illumination. This paper illustrates the importance of applying such design tools for calculating and evaluating natural illumination design. The advantages and limitations encountered during the application of such tools have been described in this article, with a greater emphasis upon computer simulation tools. As a result, in order to obtain quantitative results, conventional tools such as mathematical models and graphs, are the most used. Physical models, used by architects to visualize their design, are not commonly used as a tool for the evaluation of the internal and external daylight incidence upon the scaled model. Computer simulations allow both qualitative and quantitative studies and have been applied towards the analysis of the environmental performance of buildings, although little is used in the architectural practice.