2024 - GlareSoft

GlareSoft
Enhancing Daylight From Exposed Facades

Natural light control is an essential component of modern architectural design. Natural light not only brightens areas, but it also has an impact on thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and overall building atmosphere. However, regulating sunlight efficiently, especially on west-facing facades, is a substantial difficulty. The west face of a structure is typically exposed to the worst sunlight in the late afternoon, resulting in difficulties such as heat, glare, and higher cooling demands. This challenge is especially apparent in tropical areas, where direct sunshine may make indoors unpleasant and energy-intensive to maintain.

In tropical climes, west-facing building facades are especially vulnerable to excessive solar exposure in the late afternoon hours. This intense, low-angle sunlight causes extreme glare, substantial heat gain, and increased cooling loads, resulting in unpleasant interior settings and higher energy use. Traditional techniques to deal with these difficulties frequently reduce the amount of natural light and the aesthetic quality of building designs.

GlareSoft Facade Solutions strives to address these issues by creating novel solutions for dispersing and softening incoming sun rays. This project intends to maximize daylighting, improve visual and thermal comfort, and minimize energy use while preserving the building’s architectural integrity.

In answer to the difficulty, GlareSoft Facade Solutions has arisen as a ground-breaking method to daylighting and sun management. This unique idea intends to remove the negative impacts of direct sunlight on West-facing facades by using modern ways to Scatter and Soften incoming solar rays. GlareSoft not only improves occupant Comfort and saves energy consumption by Venting Solar Heat, but it also contributes to the Aesthetic and Practical Quality of architectural design. It uses basic physical properties of light to diverge beams when light strikes the concave translucent material.
Dispersion of light on a concave interface is mainly influenced by two components that can be controlled:
-The shape of the interface which is determined by the curvature of surface (Radius of curvature). The Higher the Radius the less it diverges light. This is controlled by adjustable softener members which change the curvature of the diverging members

– Physical properties of the material. This is the Optical Index (n) of the material in which the GlareSoft is made. The higher the Index the more it diverges light. This is Controlled by Photochromic and thermochromic coatings which alter their characteristics in response to light and temperature.