ABSTRACT
The authors have developed a new glazing system that blocks the beam sunlight and only admits the diffuse skylight, which, for horizontal apertures, solves the overheating problem caused by excess solar gains and the visual adaptation problem associated with extreme variations in light level, both spatially and over time. The challenge of the new system is that the glazing must rotate once every 24 hours to keep a constant relationship with the moving sunlight, which means that the glazing must be circular in shape. This geometric constraint presents challenges in terms of configuring the structure of the roof and the interior surfaces of the space. The glazing invention will be described and experimental results will be presented to verify the optical behavior of the glazing. A major focus of this paper will be on describing a variety of structure configurations for an airport concourse building incorporating the glazing system.
