Working with a three-dimensional shape that adjusts light seemed exciting. Venetian blinds became a basis and source of inspiration in my project. What is a Venetian blind? I arrived at the definition ”a surface of angleble pieces for sun adjustment”. From that simplified meaning I started making sketches of what an alternative model could look like. My sun shield consists of manual adjustable cylinders. The idea is that every adjustable piece, besides blocking sunlight, also can be a jig-saw-piece. Every cylinder has a simple décor on the blocking side. Depending on how the pieces are angled, different patterns are formed. The shadow effect will also be an adjustable pattern. My aim has been to make a prototype for alternative sun adjustment. Focus is on experiment with shape and user experience rather than technical perfection and efficiency. / <p>Program: Textildesignutbildningen</p><p>Uppsatsnivå: C</p>

Successful integration of daylighting systems requires the ability to predict their performance for given climates. In this dissertation, a bottom-up approach is applied to evaluate the optical performance of a selection of daylighting systems. The evaluations are based on the optical properties of the included materials, and part of the dissertation focuses on developing new optical characterization methods. The work on characterization techniques uses an integrating sphere method to characterize the transmittance of light scattering samples more accurately. The method's principle is to reduce the discrepancy in light distribution between the reference and the sample scans by using an entry port beam diffuser. For samples exhibiting distinct light scattering patterns, the benefits of improved uniformity outweigh the errors introduced by the diffusing material. The method is applicable to any integrating sphere instrument, and its simplicity makes it suitable for standard measurements. In addition to normal-hemispherical properties, many daylighting applications require knowledge of the system's spatial light distribution. This dissertation presents a method combining experimental techniques and ray tracing simulations to assess the light distribution from a Venetian blind system. The method indicates that ray tracing based on simplified optical data is inadequate to predict the light distribution for slat materials exhibiting both specular and diffuse properties. Ray tracing is a promising complement to experimental methods used to characterize light guiding or light redirecting systems. Here, spectrophotometric measurements of a scaled mirror light pipe validate a ray tracing model. The model shows excellent agreement with experimental results for both direct and diffuse incident light. The spectral evaluation shows no dramatic color changes for the transmitted light. The ray tracing model is used to evaluate four daylighting systems for a selection of Swedish locations. The percentage of occupied time when the studied systems achieve full design illuminance is relatively low, but the systems provide a valuable contribution to the required illuminance. Additionally, this dissertation provides an overview of available energy efficient windows and illustrates the importance of including the solar energy transmittance when evaluating window energy performance. Overall, this dissertation presents optical characterization techniques for improved performance evaluations of daylighting systems.

abstract: An acute and crucial societal problem is the energy consumed in existing commercial buildings. There are 1.5 million commercial buildings in the U.S. with only about 3% being built each year. Hence, existing buildings need to be properly operated and maintained for several decades. Application of integrated centralized control systems in buildings could lead to more than 50% energy savings. This research work demonstrates an innovative adaptive integrated lighting control approach which could achieve significant energy savings and increase indoor comfort in high performance office buildings. In the first phase of the study, a predictive algorithm was developed and validated through experiments in an actual test room. The objective was to regulate daylight on a specified work plane by controlling the blind slat angles. Furthermore, a sensor-based integrated adaptive lighting controller was designed in Simulink which included an innovative sensor optimization approach based on genetic algorithm to minimize the number of sensors and efficiently place them in the office. The controller was designed based on simple integral controllers. The objective of developed control algorithm was to improve the illuminance situation in the office through controlling the daylight and electrical lighting. To evaluate the performance of the system, the controller was applied on experimental office model in Lee et al.’s research study in 1998. The result of the developed control approach indicate a significantly improvement in lighting situation and 1-23% and 50-78% monthly electrical energy savings in the office model, compared to two static strategies when the blinds were left open and closed during the whole year respectively. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Architecture 2015

The master’s thesis deals with a detailed design documentation of a newly-built kindergarten. The building will be composed of two double-storey objects with a mono-pitched roof and of one single-storey object with a flat green roof. Rooms in the double-storey objects will serve as classes. The kindergarten will contain 4 classes for 100 kids in total. In the single-storey object will be situated rooms meant for operational purposes. All objects will be realised as masonry buildings without a cellar. The design documentation does include hard stadning and hard landscaping.