Category: Construction

If you were around in the 1990s, the chances are you’ll have kept in mind Baz Luhrmann’s long running hit titled Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen). The song split audiences: there were those who loved its pop philosophical content and positivity, while others hated its patronisingly didactic nature. But whatever our criticism of this song, rarely did we think, well, it’s one thing for us as individuals to wear sunscreen but what about the buildings we all work in? The fact is that buildings need sun protection too if their employees are to stay comfortable. External louvres for buildings are an entirely different kettle of fish. Commonly known in varieties such as brise soleil and glass louvres, they protect buildings’ external shells as well as the things and people inside them.

Brise soleil perform their function by shading the outward façade of a building in a stylish and streamlined fashion in keeping with the rest of the existing building. Often modern in their design, they are brilliantly well-suited to public art galleries outdoors. In fact, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park gallery is one example of a building that makes use of a brise soleil to excellent effect. The shade is designed and positioned in a way that it works with the changing light and temperature according to the season. In summer, much of the large exterior window of the gallery will be kept in shade at noon. In wintry times, on the other hand, when the light is weaker and the temperature colder, only the top section of this window will be cast in darkness. A possible added feature (not so desirable in an art gallery but rather more so in a corporate space such as a lobby or reception room) with a brise soleil consists of a special design feature that allows special patterns of light into the room. If you’re the manager of a building that’s been specially built for a particular company, you might plan on trying to tailor the pattern of light to the company’s needs: why not reproduce the corporate logo or make a new design suggestive of their brand values?

Glass louvres and external louvres are a little different from brise soleil, meanwhile. glass louvres can practically function as independent edifices; think of the famous glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Paris gallery known as the Louvre. One difference is that in Paris, the pyramid actually links to the central part of the building and is visible when you look skywards from a position underground.

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As awareness of environmentally sound architecture increases and government regulations concerning the energy impact of buildings become increasingly demanding, many architectural features such as the brise soleil and external louvres have become commonplace, even if many people are unaware of their function. Many may assume that the aluminium curtains, glass louvres and sails which are increasingly an element of modern buildings, are just a design feature whereas their impact is far more than just decorative.

Given the popularity of programmes such as Grand Designs, the concept of passive solar heating and the use of more efficient insulation to reduce heating demands is now pretty familiar. Conversely, the opposite effect, passive cooling, is rarely considered, even though it is a technique which was used by the Ancient Egyptians! Less thought is also given, outside design circles at least, to maximising the use of natural light in new buildings, thus reducing electrical costs. Solutions that work with the sun to provide maximum natural lighting without glare and overheating are also still a pretty avant garde concept.

However, the bizarre metal protrusions that stick out of many new buildings these days looking disarmingly like an over-sized set of IKEA kitchen shelves can aid with both cooling and lighting concerns and a multitude of other more discreet design features, for example glass louvres, are also providing more than just a style function.

The term ‘brise soleil’ which, roughly translated from the French means ‘sun break’, refers in architectural speak to any permanent external structure which helps to stop the sun shining directly into a building. A number of avant-garde architects have even built such a function into the main fabric of the building, such as Le Corbusier who created distinctive simply patterned concrete walls. More usually, a structure made of a different material is used, such as steel or aluminium louvres. These can be angled to permit a building with an expansive glass façade to be protected from overheating during the summer when the sun is at a higher angle while maintaining the intake of light and warmth from the sun during the winter months when the light comes in  from a much lower angle.

The best firms are able to create detailed analyses of either existing buildings or the plans for new projects. These map out the angle of the sun during different periods of the year and give advice based on these calculations for appropriate sun-shading. Maple Sunscreening, for example, is a company which regularly advises architects and engineers on how to use features such as brise soleils and glass louvres to meet standards for CO2 emissions and combines advice on internal sun-screening with suggestions for outdoor screening such as external louvres to create an overall scheme which maximises long term reductions in the final building’s energy costs.

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/

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