A PRELIMINARY EXPLORATION OF DAYLIGHTING SIMULATION IN CHINESE TRADITIONAL SIHEYUAN WITH WINDOW PAPER

Window paper plays an important role in interior daylighting of Chinese traditional architecture. But there’s a lack of attention in the conservation practices of historic buildings, and existing studies rarely focus on the combination of architectural space and window paper using simulation methods. Therefore, this study compares Gaoli paper (typically used as window paper in China) with glass on their daylighting features in Siheyuan – a Chinese traditional folk house, using methods of static and climate based dynamic simulation, assisted by optical measurement and a validation experiment. The result shows that the use of Gaoli paper can help increase the overall uniformity of interior daylighting, and improve the shadow areas near the window, with little loss of light in relatively inner areas. Further studies are still required both in the paper’s optical properties and different scenes of daylighting in Chinese traditional architecture.