Redesign of industrial heritage building with the approach of optimizing daylight efficiency and visual comfort

Reuse of heritage buildings is the best strategy to preserve the building. The lack of attention to industrial heritage buildings compared to other heritage buildings has caused their destruction, while due to its huge scale, it can be used appropriately. In addition, these buildings usually do not provide daylight standards for health and productivity. The main goal is to analyze the current state of the daylight and find solutions to reduce glare and optimal use of daylight instead of artificial light.

The case study is the research on the building of the old steam boiler in the Ghaemshahr textile factory complex in Mazandaran province. Building modeling is done with Rhino and Grasshopper, and daylight is simulated in Honeybee and Ladybug plugins based on Radiance. The design parameters of the shading system for horizontal and vertical louvres have been examined in order of the width of the blades, the distance between them and the angle, and the width has been considered for the frame. These parameters are examined by manual optimization method. With scrutinizing and validation, it leads to a better selection of shading system for better productivity.

With the aid of shading systems, it is possible to reduce glare and have enough daylight in the space. Among the shadings, the vertical louvre reports the greatest effect in reducing glare.

The result is presented as a design guideline for industrial heritage buildings in a humid subtropical climate so that the building can be reused with minimal intervention.