Shading System Design and Solar Gains Control for Buildings Passive Energy-Efficiency Improvement

In this article authors discuss a design of static shading that has its aim to fulfill several important requirements in order to provide a building’s envelope design optimization. The demonstrated shading system design meets all the necessary requirements for comfort conditions in the space, that include efficiency of shading for mitigation of harmful (excessive) solar gains (that may lead to space overheating and increase in cooling loads) and acceptable amount of useful light entering the space. To design such static shading authors followed several crucial steps that are discussed in detail. The steps are further summarized in a design workflow. The shading is validated to ensure comfortable thermal conditions and visual comfort inside the space under investigation by the use of specific software. The importance of introduction of digital twin technology to the passive energy-efficient design of buildings by means of passive control of thermal and visual conditions with the use of shading systems is as well discussed.