Maximizing Daylight Use Potential in Retail Shopping Environments in the Context of Dhaka, Bangladesh

In the recent times with the increase in the population, the number of retail shopping environments has increased significantly in Dhaka city. But these shopping environments are developing into high consumption areas of electricity resulting from artificially light design approach. In this study, it was found that the energy consumption is rising because of the minimal or no use of daylight and natural ventilation. A field-based case study was conducted to review the daylight inclusion in the design of retail shopping environments representing the historical periods of 1950-70, 1971-80, 1981-90, 1991-2000, 2001-2011. In this research, in addition to field work, parametric study was done to identify the effect of design factors/parameters relating to daylight. The main focus was to develop a causal relation between the parameters of the shopping environments to maximize the use of daylight. The parameters which were considered in this study were:width, height and depth of the shops; the depth of the corridor between two rows of shops; and the height and width of the light wells. All the parametric relations were derived to the width of the shop. Daylight level were measured and compared with the given level in the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) code. It was found that shopping environments play an important role in energy consumption in urban areas and little or no utilization of daylight contribute to this energy demand. This is of particular significance in an environment where dwindling fossil sources of energy and an increasing energy demand created by positive economic growth pose a challenge for the building industry stake holders.