الفهرس 
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Abstract
While architects aim to design better spaces and achieve a better user experience in
their designs, which includes visual and thermal comfort, only few consider the
daylighting performance through the design process. That reflects on the quality of
the designed spaces. The building skin plays the main role in delivering the natural
daylighting inside the building; therefore building skins shouldn’t be just designed for its aesthetic aspects but also as a functioning element in the building. This thesis
aims at identifying the daylighting systems and strategies that can be used in office building facades to create high performance facades. The research investigates the use of several types of widely used daylighting systems and their effect on providing good daylit office space around the year. This includes shading systems such as: horizontal and vertical sun breakers, and solar screens; as well as redirecting systems such as light shelves and louvers. The research addresses these factors in the desert climate of the city of Cairo, Egypt that is characterized by sunny clearskies.The research also proposes and investigates an alternative method in
designing performative buildings, by integrating performance simulation techniques and computational methods. This method aims at reaching optimal and high
performance solutions from a wide range of designs in the early design stages.
The thesis consists of three parts and ends with the conclusions and
recommendations. The first part (chapter 1) investigates the development of high
performance facade and studies the strategies and systems used for enhancing the daylighting performance. In the second part (chapter 2) the available daylighting
metrics and performance indicators were analyzed. An office space in Cairo was
selected as a case study and its daylighting performance was analyzed. In the third
part (chapters 3, 4, and 5) the effect of using shading and redirecting systems on
daylighting performance was studied. Moreover, an investigation was conducted on the ability of optimization techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GA) to be used for reaching optimal design by combining two or more systems together. The studied cases were parametrically modeled using Grasshopper and Rhinoceros 3D modeling software. Diva-for-Rhino a daylighting simulation plug-in was used to interface Radiance and Daysim for annual daylighting simulation and illuminance calculation. The daylighting level adequacy was evaluated annually using Dynamic
Daylighting Performance Metrics (DDPM), while Daylight Glare Probability was calculated for visual comfort assessment.
The results provide a daylight performance-based comparison of the different
techniques and parameters along with guidelines for using each of them. Moreover,
for each orientation, the thesis presents a matrix of different possible solution that can aid designers in creating a well-daylit office spaces