Development of a lighting simulation tool for integrated building design

Although the use of simulations is widely accepted to benefit design decisions, research has shown that the generally open-ended nature of design inquiries, the multidisciplinary nature of building design processes, and practical application constraints pose significant challenges to the pervasive use of contemporary simulation tools in the building industry. This paper documents the development of a lighting simulation tool that is not only easily deployed within integrated design processes, but also drastically reduces the overheads such as time, manpower, training and computational resources typically associated with lighting simulations.