There are several architectural features that can be employed to make the best use of natural light, and, indeed, to provide the best protection from the sun’s heat and light. They can also contribute to the sustainability of a building by improving the flow of light and heat. glass louvres, external louvres and brise soleil are all options that provide benefits on different buildings and in different conditions. Bespoke solutions are the only way to get the best out of the available light and heat.

A brise soleil is an architectural feature, usually attached over the face of a building and made to provide a particular level of sun-shading and stop the face of the building from overheating in the warmest months of the year. The feature can also offer other benefits, such as a greater level of privacy for the building’s face, or less glare from early morning/late evening sunshine. In their concrete incarnation they were popularised by pioneer of modern architecture Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, otherwise known as Le Corbusier. However, they have taken lots of forms over the years, including the huge, movable wings of the Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Santiago Calatrava. When they are full extended, the iconic Milwaukee wings stand at 217 feet over the museum. In an original and subtle form, they are present in Jean Nouvel’s 1980 building, the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris. These take the form of apertures in the glass wall panels, which open and close at each hour of the day.

On non-structural walls, glass louvres can be a way of achieving light-shading by using lightweight materials at relatively low construction costs. External louvres can be used intelligently to resolve two problems at once: preventing overheating during the hot summer months, when the sun beams down from a high angle, and using the light of the winter sun.

So, depending on the structure – the conditions that surround it, and the angles and temperatures of the sun on its faces – any of these elements could be a workable solution. glass louvres are a good solution to achieve internal day-lighting in a building, and are very cost-effective. The brise soleil is versatile, and can be extremely aesthetically pleasing and, if deployed intelligently, could make the structure look really state of the art. External louvres can be deployed in a multitude of different ways, and so they offer quite a scope for creative solutions.

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