Sunlighting Design: an Inverse Approach of Simulation for CAD Tools

International audienceExisting simulation tools are mainly used for appraising environmental properties of architectural and urban constructions. In most cases, these tools do not suit design practice as they work on completed schemes. A designer who wants to emphasize an environmental point of view needs a new range of CAD tools that work in an inverse way: from the environmental properties to the built forms. Our main issue for this paper is to present an inverse approach application in the field of sunlighting simulation and design. We have developed an experimental CAD tool that models objects from declarative sunlighting properties. Our system works on proposals such as ‘this shape must be sunlit (or sunless) for the end of afternoon in winter’, and it suggests solutions — shadings and openings — that check on these proposals. This methodology opens new research avenues toward a real aid for environmental design

Understanding past sensibility to grasp present architecture: the example of solar radiation

International audienceThis paper offers an understanding of how solar radiation acts on the various ways we organize our environment and conceive both architecture and urbanism. Our research seeks to put into perspective the various modalities by which exposure to the sun is expressed, present in discourse on architecture and urbanism since the mid-19th century. These forms of expression reveal the various uncertainties in our grasp of light and solar radiation over time – what we refer to as different "sensations of the sun" – and the consequences which these various sensibilities have had on the production of built forms. This gives rise to a history of architecture and urbanism in the sun, which is not an incantation to some supposedly "better" allowance for the sun in the production of buildings, rather an invitation to understand the various ways of reconciling human habitat with a natural element which exerts its physical and symbolic force on all of us

A generative computer tool to model shadings and openings that achieve sunlighting properties in architectural design

International audienceWe present a generative tool based on a new simulation method for making sunlighting an actual formgiver in architectural design. Our system reverses the common simulation process. It works with intuitive sunlighting properties such as “this area must be sunless the afternon in summer”. Given a property, it computes a complex geometrical volume figuring the sunlighting phenomenon in time and space. This volume provides a visualization of the sunlighting constraint and it enables the designer to model the different solutions — shadings or openings — that exactly check on the given property. We illustrate the system with two demonstrative examples in architectural design and we introduce some new developments under consideration at the present time

Inverse simulation of sunlighting: a geometrical framework for architectural and urban design

International audienceWe propose a framework based on integral geometry that enables to express and to solve all sunlighting problems: the direct problems for assessing sunlighting in a scene, and the inverse ones for achieving sunlighting constraints in a design context. The heart of our method is the sunlighting volume that we denote ∏(P, T). We describe this notion and we show how to implement it in an architectural and urban design process

Construcciones ambientales en el hábitat moderno: Le Corbusier y André Missenard (1937-57)

International audienceSince the late-1930s, the emergence of a renewed cultural, technological and political approach towards the notion of climate reformulated the relationship between bodies and their milieux. This article analyses the works of Le Corbusier through the lens of this hypothesis of the hygienist paradigm’s evolution. Based on an original research at the archives of the Fondation Le Corbusier, this paper focuses on the theoretical discussions and the technical collaboration of the architect with André Missenard. This engineer, a key figure in the scientific, industrial and political environment of his time, played a main role to understand the relevance of the ambient dimension in Le Corbusier’s housing proposals in the 1950s. In particular, this paper deals with the design methods (Grille Climatique), as well as their spatial, technical and sensory materialization (Unités d'habitation and Maison du Brésil). The conclusions of the article show the evolution of Le Corbusier’s postulates, which beginning from his early proposal for the “Ville Radieuse”, managed to integrate the contributions of the “Science des climats artificiels” in architectural design looking for “Rétablir les conditions nature” in modern housing.Desde final de los años 30, la formulación de una nueva sensibilidad cultural, tecnológica y política hacia el clima, entendido en un sentido amplio, replanteó la relación entre el cuerpo humano y su entorno. El presente artículo confronta la obra de Le Corbusier ante dicha hipótesis de evolución del paradigma higienista previo. A partir de una investigación original en los archivos de la Fondation Le Corbusier, el objeto principal es el estudio de los intercambios teóricos y los aportes técnicos entre el arquitecto y André Missenard. El ingeniero, referente en el entorno científico, industrial y político de la época, resulta una pieza clave para entender la relevancia de la dimensión ambiental del hábitat propugnado por Le Corbusier durante los años 50. En particular, este trabajo aborda tanto los métodos de ideación (Grille Climatique) como su materialización espacial, técnica y sensorial (Unités d’habitation y Maison du Brésil). Las conclusiones del artículo muestran la evolución de los postulados habitacionales de Le Corbusier, que partiendo de la “Ville Radieuse”, acabó por integrar las ideas de la “Science des climats artificiels” en el proyecto arquitectónico, buscando “Rétablir les conditions nature” en el hábitat moderno

L'émergence du développement durable au regard des mutations de l'histoire urbaine

National audienceAlors que la ville classique devait être belle en respectant les conventions de bienséance et que la ville moderne devait être radieuse en ordonnant ses besoins, la ville contemporaine doit être durable en assurant son lien avec la nature. depuis l'époque industrielle, l'entassement des habitants et l'engorgement des voies appellent des réformes rationnelles qui rendent la ville plus fluide, plus saine et plus naturelle. Les motifs et les projets du développement durable s'inscrivent aujourd'hui dans la continuité de ces discours

Une utopie artistique solaire urbaine des années 1960 : l'hélioplastique de Mieczyslaw Twarowski

Cet article présente la théorie hélioplastique de l'architecte polonais Mieczyslaw Twarowski publiée en 1962. À travers cette théorie, notre objectif est de mettre en évidence la double dimension historique et utopique des relations entre arts, environnement et ville : historique, parce que les propositions de Twarowski prennent sens dans le contexte de la modernité " radieuse "; utopique, parce qu'à travers ses expérimentations, Twarowski exprime sa croyance en un véritable enchantement solaire urbain. Par contraste, nous esquissons ce que pourrait être une esthétique urbaine contemporaine des flux solaires, susceptible de renouer avec les valeurs sensibles fondamentales de l'ensoleillement urbain.This paper introduces the helioplastics theory published in 1962 by the Polish architect Mieczyslaw Twarowski. Through this theory, we aim to highlight both the historical and the utopian dimensions of the relationships between art, environment and the city: historical, because Twarowski's proposals have to be understood in the context of the "radiant" modernity; utopian, because through his experiments, Twarowski expresses his belief in an urban solar enchantment. By contrast, we outline what could be a contemporary urban aesthetics of solar fluxes, likely to reconnect us with the fundamental sensory values of urban sunlight

The internal courtyard of mixed use buildings, a device of thermal and luminous comfort

International audienceThe historical patio-courtyard is an outdoor area largely or entirely surrounded by buildings or walls. Generally, the courtyards are useful to sunlighting because their open spaces preserve the solar access of the adjoining buildings. They allow sunlight to reach the facades so that side-lighting strategies can be used. In urban fabric of the Mediterranean countries, we observe a new generation of big patios with mixed-use buildings (housing, trade, offices). This may be a return to the traditional form of the patio, which allows a passive regulation of built environment, multi-use activities, and security of the inhabitants. This new interpretation of a traditional passive device suggests more problems of illumination on lower levels. It becomes necessary to assess the performances of different courtyard shapes that behave as shafts. This paper presents the influence of the courtyard shape and orientation, on sunlighting duration and illumination levels of ground and facades. The results enable to propose changes of the distribution of the uses through the facades, vertically or horizontally, according to the orientation preferred and the illumination for each use

Visual Analysis of Urban Environment

International audienceThis paper presents a survey of methods used to model and to analyse visual events in urban scenes. What we call a visual event is an event which occurs in the visual field while we are moving or while the scene is moving. This could be an object appearance or disappearance, or a shape, a colour, or a texture modification. But here, we mainly consider the visual events provided by objects set during a motion. In the second section, we examine some methods to model the events that come inside our visual field, giving a first interpretation to a urban environment. This is done after showing methods to represent the visual field. In the third section, we focus on different methods used to analyse and to evaluate the visibility in urban environment. Finally, we conclude on the way each of these representations of visual perceptions and each of these visual analysis methods act, and in which way they could be extended

La construction du chez-soi dans la transition énergétique : entre conceptions de la performance et pratiques habitantes

International audienceCette publication est associée à la journée d’étude intitulée « La construction du chez-soi dans la transition énergétique : entre conceptions de la performance et pratiques habitantes » qui a eu lieu le 23 octobre 2015 à l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes.Soutenue par le PREBAT/PUCA et Leroy Merlin Source, cette journée d'étude a été organisée par le CRENAU / UMR AAU, dans le cadre du projet de recherche « L’accompagnement des projets d’auto-réhabilitation par les magasins de bricolage : état des lieux et prospective pour l’amélioration énergétique de l’habitat en milieu rural » mené en 2014-2015.La publication rassemble les contributions de chercheurs et professionnels :•Françoise BARTIAUX, sociologue•Gaëtan BRISEPIERRE, sociologue•Céline DROZD, Ignacio REQUENA RUIZ, Kévin MAHÉ et Daniel SIRET, architectes•Pascal GONTIER, architecte•Viviane HAMON, consultante, et Marie-Maud GERARD, sociologue•Florent LAVIGNE et François LANNOU, architectes•Marie MANGOLD, sociologue•Bruno MARESCA, sociologue, et Stéphanie LACOMBE, photographe•Sophie RICARD, architecte•Éric VORGER, ingénieurLa construction ou la rénovation des logements, menée par les habitants seuls ou en lien avec des professionnels, fait intervenir des valeurs affectives et culturelles qui participent intimement aux qualités prêtées au « chez-soi ». Dans un contexte de promotion de l’efficacité énergétique, les auteurs mettent en discussion la question de la performance et de la construction du chez-soi dans l'objectif d'interroger les modalités de production et de rénovation de l’habitat. L’énergie, abordée ici dans une perspective transversale et interdisciplinaire, relie pratiques sociales et savoirs professionnels