Development of a Climate-Based Multicriteria Approach to support the Choice of Shading Devices to Achieve a Well Daylit Space: The case study of University Classrooms

Designers are constantly overflowed with metrics, and often these are not considered in making design decisions due to the difficult choice among them. The purpose of the study is to deepen the ways to integrate simulations, performance, spatial and environment design choices through the multi-attribute decision making. The main aim of this paper is to explore an approach that can unify the fundamental pillars of daylight metrics that taken individually do not holistically describe the problem of a well-daylit space, in order to achieve the choice and sizing of shading devices from daylight in nonresidential educational buildings. Applying a multicriterial approach has the potential to simultaneously integrate multiple performance criteria that would typically be analysed independent of each other in order to be able to describe the project globally in the availability and use of natural light.