Maximizing Visual Comfort: Effective Daylight and Glare Strategies for Marina Residences

Natural daylight is one of the defining qualities of residential architecture. It enhances visual comfort, reduces dependence on artificial lighting and contributes to occupants' wellbeing. However, maximizing daylight without introducing excessive solar gains or visual discomfort requires careful performance-based evaluation throughout the design process.

As part of the Building Physics studies for the Marina Residences by Kengo Kuma in the Athenian Riviera, a comprehensive series of daylight and visual comfort analyses were carried out using computational workflows.

The study combined multiple simulation methods to evaluate both annual and seasonal lighting conditions:

• Cumulative Incident Radiation, identifying solar exposure across the building façades during representative summer and winter periods.

• Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) and Illuminance (E) analyses to assess daylight availability and penetration within the residence receiving the highest daylight exposure.

• Daylight Glare Probability (DGP) simulations to evaluate potential glare under representative seasonal conditions and from multiple occupant viewpoints.

These analyses go beyond qualitative judgment, offering measurable insights into how natural light interacts with a building throughout the year. By leveraging these results, the design team can make informed decisions on façade design, glazing strategies, and shading systems. This approach ensures better daylight distribution, minimizes glare, and enhances overall visual comfort.

By integrating environmental simulations into the design workflow from the earliest stages, architects and engineers can make informed decisions that lead to brighter, healthier and more comfortable living environments before construction even begins.

At Spatial Labs, we support this process by evaluating the environmental performance of different façade options through advanced parametric simulation tools, enabling the optimization of daylight performance, comfort, and energy balance from the earliest stages of design.

Exceptional building envelopes are achieved when architectural ambition is supported by measurable performance. If you're looking to optimise daylight, visual comfort and building envelope performance from the earliest stages of design, we would be pleased to help bring your vision to life.