Ziezo: An Interplay between Daylight, Shading and Energy

Windows are crucial elements that provide occupants with adequate daylighting, maintain their visual comfort, and create a connection between inside and outside. Ziezo is an insulated glazing unit that integrates solar shading with bifacial photovoltaics. This window aims to mediate between achieving high performance in daylight and shading, thermal comfort, visual connection, and energy generation. Aside from the typical electricity generated by pv as the sun faces the front side of the solar cell, the novel contribution of this window is that as part of the light is admitted through the window, it is reflected off the venetian blinds and redirected to the back side of the solar cell to contribute to additional electricity harvesting. Intricate interdependencies between system components play an instrumental role in the interplay between daylight and energy. My project aims to design a model and a tool for the optical system of Ziezo. A model which captures the physical phenomena of transporting daylight through a complex fenestration system, with respect to dynamic daylight conditions and window orientations. The optical behavior of the system are modeled in Radiance, and two interactive parametric tools have been developed to inform architects on how light interacts with complex fenestration system, visualize BSDF and specular optical characteristics by raytracing. The Ziezo project is carried out in collaboration with Pilkington BV, TNO and W/E adviseurs. The project is supported by Topsector Energy of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.