Evaluating Glare due to Solar Specular Reflection from a High-rise Building Skin in Urban Area

Abstract

Many contemporary high-rise buildings in urban area are built with highly specular envelops such as glass and metallic materials to show the buildings as landmarks and provide the occupants with better views. These specular building envelops, however, frequently cause glare problems when the direct sunlight is reflected from the building facades. The purpose of this study is to suggest a methodology of evaluating the glare potentials from buildings with specular surfaces by computer simulation techniques. An actual building located in Seoul was evaluated in terms of glare potentials by luminance measurements and computer simulation.