IMPLEMENTATION OF IDEF IN BUILDING DAYLIGHT DESIGN PROCESS

Abstract

This study focuses on identifying daylight associated design parameters and establishing the potential impact on building daylight efficiency. Given that a typical building design process is iterative and complex in nature, and it involves communication and coordination across many disciplines. It is thus essential to allow building professionals who are not trained in such domain to gain a primary understanding of daylight design process specifically involved in the programming design phase whereby a significant bulk of daylight designing works are carried out. The study began by identifying the design parameters associated with daylight through the review of literatures, as well as interpreting the interconnections between the design parameters and their impact on daylight design efficiency. Thereafter, the interconnections were articulated in the form of a process flowchart by taking into consideration of the workflow involved in the programme phase. Key design deliverables were found to be sun path diagram, site study, sky condition, building massing, orientation, fenestration, and the components of daylight. Subsequently, the process flowchart is adapted into an IDEF process model where the design activities were reorganised into a hierarchical structure and were connected with junctions. Given the technological advancement nowadays, most designing involves software design tools to develop greater and more reliable building design. Hence, selective functions of simulation software were illustrated in the initial design stage to demonstrate the functionality and value of using simulation software. Nonetheless, this study of daylight design process is restricted in the dimension of its scope as the process model excludes the building schematic and design development phase thus, rendering this process model incomplete, not completely inclusive. Additionally, the IDEF process model is only accurate and valid conceptually to a certain extent as it has yet to be verified with a practical case study to yield standardised results.