Sun and climate modeling for thermal simulation: parametric models relevant at early design stages

The traditionally engineering-oriented approach to thermal building simulations tends to leave such analysis tools out of the reach of general design practitioners, especially during the early stages of building design when many of the most influential decisions regarding the thermal envelope are made. An alternative approach is proposed for making a situation-specific component of the overall thermal simulation model – the ambient climate conditions – accessible and informative at the level of schematic design considerations. A means for profiling primarily the directional distribution of solar radiation is argued to be the most meaningful in this context, and a particularly useful parametric radiation model is briefly summarized, together with a description of how it is currently being implemented in the development of an architecture-oriented application method.