Service: Human Comfort & Safety

Yes! Balancing the positive and negative effects of daylight is complex, but crucial for creating visually appealing and thermally comfortable spaces that can also reduce energy. By considering energy use, thermal comfort, and glare we take a holistic approach to produce spaces that are not only pleasing to occupants but also energy efficient, reducing the need for artificial lighting and lowering operating costs. 

We utilize climate-based metrics such as useful daylight illuminance, daylight autonomy, and spatial and continuous daylight autonomy to interpret daylight performance over an entire year. These metrics provide a comprehensive view of daylight performance, essential for achieving LEED daylight credits and WELL certification, ensuring your project meets the highest standards of sustainability and occupant comfort.

Creating comfortable and safe outdoor spaces involves understanding and mitigating the quirks of local climates. For instance, we can suggest modifications to building designs that minimize wind vortexes on terraces or position wind scoops to direct breezes into overheated areas. We can also advise on the precise layout of landscaping, shading devices and wind-breaks to optimize the environment of these areas. These solutions enhance the usability and enjoyment of outdoor spaces by addressing site-specific conditions effectively.

Our process starts with understanding weather data and the surrounding context, including wind directions, sun positions, temperature trends, and urban contexts. We evaluate how these factors interact with the facility and how people use the space to provide practical mitigation strategies, ensuring pedestrian comfort and safety in various environmental conditions. Starting from the regional climate perspective, we narrow down the focus to the immediate surrounding area, and finally to the highly localized wind and thermal effects that occur at a human scale. In other words, we consider the whole range of effects, from the scale of weather systems in the atmosphere all the way down to an individual person sitting at a table trying to enjoy their lunch to provide holistic solutions that consider all the ways these factors interconnect with each other.

We pair reflection analysis with other solar services, such as quantifying shadows, assessing internal heat gains, and evaluating the impact on thermal comfort. This comprehensive approach ensures all aspects of solar interaction are considered, providing a holistic understanding of how your building interacts with the sun and its surroundings for optimal performance. 

Our in-house tools allow us to quantify solar impact in a wide range of ways. We measure the solar energy incident on building facades, crucial for passive solar heating and evaluating the feasibility of solar power systems. We can quantify shadows based on duration and size to meet municipal requirements and even predict losses on solar power systems due to neighboring developments. No matter the question, we can answer it!

For stadium renovations, we balance light and comfort by ensuring enough light for turf health while providing shade for spectators. We assess how new shadows affect turf light availability and health, ensuring the proper balance between light and comfort to enhance the experience for both spectators and athletes. 

Our holistic analysis starts with accurate solar and sky data, computes the total solar energy received, and tracks reflections and shadows to understand their impacts on human vision, heat gains, plant health, and daylight. This thorough understanding of solar interaction helps create efficient and comfortable spaces, optimizing building performance and occupant comfort.