PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION OF DAYLIGHTING PERFORMANCE FOR SKYLIGHT DESIGN CONFIGURATIONS IN SHOPPING MALLS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

In Egypt and the Middle East, there is an obvious tendency of establishing new shopping malls that provide collective facilities. This research aims to provide a methodology for multi-criteria multi-stage optimization for skylight designs. A case study for a shopping mall in Cairo is selected where different skylight design configurations are examined. Skylight parametric variations include different opening ratios, visual transmittance, shapes and heights values. Daylighting performance is tested in regards with daylit area coverage, potential for glare and accompanied energy consumption used for artificial lighting. A parametric simulation for over 370 different cases are conducted. Optimum solutions have been identified and compared to the current base case. These results shows that early considerations in skylight and interior design could achieve more than 50% improvements in daylighting. This research sets the outline for an effective methodology to optimize skylight design based on multiobjectives