How to predict daylight conditions in buildings during the design phase
![]() |
Luminance rendering under sunny sky with false color mapping, Hessenwaldschule school project - see the case study |
Contents |
[edit] The importance of predicting daylight conditions prior to design realisation
The quality of natural light within a building is an important consideration for designers.
Daylight has been shown to be an important factor for the health and wellbeing of building users. Contributing to both human comfort and productivity. It also provides appropriate illumination to carry out tasks and gives people a connection with the outdoors.
Being able to predict a building’s daylight conditions at the design stage will avoid costly changes downstream and gives the confidence that the building design will:
- Meet any specifications and standards for daylight e.g. EN 17037
- Minimise the need for artificial lighting
[edit] VELUX Daylight Visualizer - Accurately simulate and quantify daylight levels as part of your design strategy
![]() |
How to evaluate EN 17037 with Daylight Visualizer using imported models. YouTube. |
The VELUX Daylight Visualizer is a professional simulation tool created to empower architectural design with critical and validated daylight level analysis. Optimizing the amount of natural light that is available in a building means less electric lighting is required during the day. Daylight simulation plays an active role in supporting a commercial building’s compliance and user needs by providing critical overviews of building performance.
The VELUX Daylight Visualizer delivers project certainty when measuring and calculating critical daylight factors. Exploring complex design spaces enables you to see daylight levels in high-resolution and 3D form, giving more design clarity with enhanced knowledge of a building space, and the role daylight plays in transforming an environment
This digital tool allows you to simulate daylight scenarios with quantifiable accuracy at the concept stages of building design. Explore and accurately predict daylight levels in building projects to ensure they meet specific daylighting requirements.
[edit] Features & Benefits of VELUX Daylight Visualizer:
Features
- Visualize luminance, illuminance and daylight factor levels
- Create 3D perspective renderings quickly and easily
- Import 3D models from a range of CAD/BIM software
- Evaluate compliance with EN 17037 daylight requirements
- Validated for simulation accuracy against CIE 171:2006 test cases
Benefits
- Calculate and compare daylight solutions prior to design realisation
- Achieve an optimal design for daylight availability
- Plan with accurate and visual daylight level reports
- Ensure regulatory requirements are being met
- Visualize the result of a daylight design in advance
The Daylight Visualizer simulation tool has been developed to run on both Mac and PC.
For more information on the VELUX Daylight Visualizer and to download the software please visit the VELUX Commercial website.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
The end of the games but continued calls for action.
From the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
CIOB respond to the government call for evidence
For the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee.
How are buildings and their occupants responding to extreme heat?
BSRIA's Technical Director reflects on recent weather patterns.
Landownership in England in 1909
A national valuation to fund old-age pensions.
The world’s largest Commonwealth memorial to the missing.
Long after the end of the defects liability period.
BSRIA Occupant Wellbeing survey BOW
Occupant satisfaction and wellbeing in buildings.
Geometric form and buildings in brief
From the simple to the complex.
Understanding the changing nature of insulation
And the UK Government guidelines.
Three year action plan to improve equity, diversity and inclusion
Commitment agreed to by major built environment bodies.
The Construction Route – what needs to change?
Electrical skills, low carbon, high-tech and the building services revolution.
Deep geothermal power possibilities
Ultra-deep drilling with millimeter-wave beam technology.
BSRIA Briefing 2022- From the outside looking in
Looking at the built environment from space.
Competence requirements for principal contractors and designers
BSI standards 8671, 8672 and 8673.
Bringing life to burial grounds.
From failed modernism to twenty-minute neighbourhoods.
Design chill and design freeze
The gates process and change control.
Neuroscience for project success
Why people behave as they do. APM book.