AN ARCHITECTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF SOLAR POWER

摘要

Calls for readily effective solar design tools assume that an accessible bridge between the information needs of architects and the information provided by building physics has long been established. A general overview of the available means for supporting the building design process, however, shows that computer-based design guidance is still largely based on the working concerns of engineers, rather than architects. The paper delineates an analysis of these distinctly different classes of working concerns. In summary, design decision scenarios that can be termed architectural tend to work “from the inside out,” that is, from human-oriented objectives towards the development of building geometry and passive building behavior (structural and thermal). The implementation of solar radiation models, on the other hand, is commonly limited to the context of thermal models for simulation analysis. Such calculation models inherently focus on climatic boundary conditions, typically on an annual bas is, and treat the building envelope “from the outside in.” Hereby occupant behavior is reduced to a secondary parameter and geometric design issues to an energy-flow topology. Two key, dynamic aspects of architectural design are thus practically eliminated from most energy calculation procedures: diurnal patterns of functional behavior and the spatial context in physical, geometric terms. The paper presents an approach to regain the architectural viewpoint for understanding valuable solar radiation information as meaningful design support. In the author’s previously published research work, a method of “solar profiling” was developed using parametric calculation models. The described methodology has since been further refined through continual educational application.