We were tasked with designing and measuring the effectiveness of shading devices for Gresham city hall’s west facade. The building experiences significant solar gain resulting in high cooling costs. Our client wanted to cut down of direct solar gain while maintaining useful daylighting. In addition there was a desire to keep costs down. This project is a further investigation of the translucence as explored in a previous project and blog entry.
Before I go into the more practical approach I took to solving the design problem (shown here in axonometric view) I will touch on a more dynamic solution that would likely be cost prohibitive. It struck me that shading devices attach to buildings like a barnacle might, therefore this iteration of the shading device is an abstraction of a barnacle. This approach nicely frames the view and casts dynamic internal shadows creating a gradient of color resulting from the angular surface.
The more practical shade offered 100% shading until after 4pm at the summer solstice. A little afternoon sun was allowed in at about 3pm in the winter when solar gain is not an entirely negative condition. During the equinox 100% of the direct rays of the sun are blocked. The renderings of those conditions are shown here in that order at 3pm. The translucent material allowed for 100% relative daylight factor near the windows as shown on the graph. One drawback to the translucent material is the potential for glare. They may actually let too much light in. This creates the added design problem of shading the shades.
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