Team C: Optimal Shades

The aim of this project was to develop an intelligent, low tech, exterior shading skin for a hypothetical building that could regulate the annual solar radiation on its facades. The team approached the problem by subdividing the façades of the building into smaller panels and calculating the amount of annual solar radiation on each panel. The group came up with a parametric definition that relates the radiation values on each panel of the façade with the number and size of generated louvers per panel. To facilitate construction, the results were reduced to five categories per facade allowing modularization. Consequently, the East and West facades consisted from panels comprising 1-5 louvers, whereas the south facade consisted from panels comprising 5-9 louvers. As a final step the team calculated the new annual solar radiation on the shaded façades to verify their design strategy.