Making use of Point Cloud for Generating Subtractive Solar Envelopes

As a contextual and passive design strategy, solar envelopes play a great role in determining building mass based on desirable sun access during the predefined period. With the rapid evolution of digital tools, the design method of solar envelopes varies in different computational platforms. However, current approaches still lack in covering the detailed complex geometry and relevant information of the surrounding context. This, consequently, affects missing information during contextual analysis and simulation of solar envelopes. This study proposes a subtractive method of solar envelopes by considering the geometrical attribute contained in the point cloud of TLS (terrestrial laser scanner) dataset. Integration of point cloud into the workflow of solar envelopes not only increases the robustness of final geometry of existing solar envelopes but also enhances awareness of architects during contextual analysis due to consideration of surface properties of the existing environment.