Facade-Floor-Cluster: Methodology for determining optimal building clusters for solar access and floor plan layout in urban environments

Daylight standards are one of the main factors for the shape and image of cities. With urbanization and ongoing densification of cities, new planning regulations are emerging in order to manage access to sun light. In Estonia a daylight standard defines the rights of light for existing buildings and the direct solar access requirement for new premises. The solar envelope method and environmental simulations to compute direct sun light hours on building façades can be used to design buildings that respect both daylight requirements. However, no existing tool integrates both methods in an easy to use manner. Further, the assessment of façade performance needs to be related to the design of interior layouts and of building clusters to be meaningful to architects. Hence, the present work presents a computational design workflow for the evaluation and optimization of high density building clusters in urban environments in relation to direct solar access requirements and selected types of floor plans.