This is the first in a series of posts on Spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA), an often misrepresented and misunderstood daylighting metric.
The way building occupants actually use a space is an important consideration when it comes to daylight design. Building users have the power to negate even the most expensive fenestration systems with the flip of a switch. Because it’s unrealistic to think people are always satisfied with the sun and never want to adjust the blinds, it’s essential for daylight simulations to account for this behavior.
Manual operation of blinds in the Microsoft Building. Boulder, CO.
LightStanza offers renderings and grid analysis using operable blinds to give you a more complete picture of lighting levels in a space. We help you test the effectiveness of your daylighting systems by predicting how users might interact with them. In addition, we allow you to be specific—define material properties for the glazing and covering, as well as the behavior of the blinds, shades, or other daylight devices.
The operation of blinds or shades is a critical component of the Spatial Daylight Autonomy metric, which is required for LEED v4. Without it, your score will be inaccurate. LightStanza is the only cloud-based simulation software that offers honest and complete sDA results, as well as makes it easy to understand and interpret. More on this topic to come!
Daylight Deconstructed 