Glass louvres let the sunlight in

David Construction, Sun Protection

Many of us will never have heard of brise soleil, glass louvres or external louvres but those who do business in buildings where they are fitted will definitely realise their benefits. When natural light is scarce they encourage its penetration of the building. In harsh hot summer sun they provide shade and keep us cool inside. These uncommon terms, so commonplace in architectural circles, should be learnt by any employers in any field who wish to keep their staff content.

In the winter, it is not atypical for staff to absent themselves from work because they feel down in the dumps with flu, exhaustion or mild depression. Increased exposure to natural light, which working in glass louvres or external louvres allows, will have a positive impact of the health of these workers. Anyone who has endeavoured to work in low light will know how sleepy it makes one feel. Working late when it’s dark or gloomy meanwhile, makes one feel an intense kind of self-pity.

Fitting innovative light and heat efficiency elements might also allow us to gaze out of the window a little less in summer and focus on our work. We might also be less tempted to spend our entire lunch breaks outdoors when the sun is at its hottest and capable of frizzling us to a crisp.  Inhabitants of the UK have a notorious reputation for worshipping the sun. Though we receive a much more bountiful dose of UV rays than people living in Finland, Sweden or Norway, our reaction to the first signs of fine weather would make anyone unfamiliar with the British stereotype think that we spent most of the year shut in the dark. The thing is, many of us who work 9-5 jobs do really feel this way. Especially in the winter, when we are obliged to get up before the sun has risen and leave the office at dusk.

The unhealthy culture of taking lunch at one’s computer means that it is easy in winter not to get very much light at all. Thus we suffer, from seasonal affective disorder or just a sallow complexion, and appear excessively overjoyed when spring and summer finally give us some sun. Encouraging your employer to install brise soleil, glass louvres or external louvres will be a move you won’t regret. With much more exposure to light when you need it and shade when the sun gets too bright, you’ll start enjoying your job and a newly energised you.

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further info.

Brise Soleil, the Environment and your Finances…

Mary Sun Protection

In its simplest form the brise soleil is little more than a textured wall, and yet in some of its better-known incarnations this architectural device is stunning and complex. The Milwaukee Art Museum is world-famous for its folding, automatic wing-style brise soleil. However, in other cases they just take the form of a concrete surface – horizontal or vertical – with holes in. The idea is that these will let through some but not all of the sunlight that hits them. The exact amount will rest on a number of factors, including the climate, latitude, direction the building is facing and the time of day and year. Variations on this theme include glass louvres and other forms of external louvres. Although they may appear very different, the same principles are employed, and for the same ends.

In general, the purpose of all these devices is to limit the amount of sunlight coming through them at various points, whilst still making the most of it at other times. Take a large, modern office building, for example, which may have a large south-facing window. In the winter this will be a asset to the building (so long as it is properly insulated) since it will let in large amounts of sunlight – thereby cutting down on artificial lighting and heating and their associated costs. Passive, natural heat and light are typically more comfortable than central heating and electric lights. However, in the summer such a large window would present a major problem. Without adequate shading, the amount of heat and light it lets in would make the office space hotter than was comfortable (or, in some jurisdictions, legal). The purpose of the brise soleil and external louvres are to adjust the incoming sunlight at different times of the day and year. Low-angle morning/evening and winter light is encouraged; hotter, high-angle midday and summer sun is blocked.

Some glass louvres are built with photovoltaic systems to generate power as well as limit unwanted light and heat. In other cases, external louvres are automated so that their angle can be customised for the exact circumstances and weather conditions; the one-size-fits-all approach is useful up to a point, but can often be improved. But even a basic brise soleil can make a huge difference, lowering the need for heating and air conditioning, and therefore improving energy bills in the process.

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

Brise soleil: their role and importance

David Sun Protection

Every decent architect or builder should be familiar with certain important terms, and anybody who wants his or her designs to be amongst the best buildings of today certainly needs to know his brise-soleil from his glass louvres.  One need not be put off by the sophisticatedly confusing sounding French names – these structures are essentially fairly simple, and as soon as you get your head around them they are likely to be very useful.  This article aims to give a succinct explanation of these key architectural terms, so that next time external louvres come up in conversation with a builder or architect, you will know what they mean.

The word ‘brise soleil’ is from the French, meaning ‘sun breaker’.  The term refers to a variety of permanent sun-shading techniques, and the beauty of the technique is the range of architectural strategies that come under this umbrella.  They span from basic patterned walls to the impressive mechanical, pattern-creating devices of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.  In its classic form, this sun breaker is a horizontal projection extending from the sun-side façade of a building.  Façades with a large amount of glass can be in danger of overheating during the summer, and using a brise-soleil is a very effective way of stopping this from happening.  The structure can be further modified by incorporating louvres, which prevent high-angle summer sun falling on the façade, and allow low angle winter sun to provide passive solar heating.

Glass is one of the most useful and multifunctional building products there is.  It can be used formany different purposes, from creating striking glass façades to elegant internal screen solutions.  Glass louvres are used to control solar heat gain within buildings, and have traditionally been tinted to create the desired effect.  More elaborate finishes are available, too.  Ceramic frits, for example, involve baking a type of paint onto the glass.  These type of finishes create a more unusual appearance while reflecting the sun’s heat and helping to maintain a comfortable interior temperature.  Presently, glass louvres are taking on a more active role in buildings than ever before, with light redirection and photovoltaic systems allowing for various different functions.  These louvres can offer building owners and specifiers realistic solutions in terms of creating environmentally friendly buildings by lessening the need for air conditioning while providing renewable energy sources as well as shading.

Basic external louvres, on the other hand, are usually mounted in the vertical, with a row of horizontal blades shaped and positioned to minimise the ingress of water.  With relatively simple functions such as providing shade from the sun, brise-soleil, glass louvres and the like should not provoke confusion.  Once you know what they are and how they work, it should be fairly straightforward to assess which solution would be right for your project.

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

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