Preserving Visual Comfort in Office Spaces: Utilizing Digital Building Twins

Visual comfort in office buildings is a crucial aspect of asset management. Achieving visual comfort involves a balanced combination of daylight and electric light. Efficiently evaluating visual comfort both subjectively and objectively (i.e., through surveys and lighting measurements) and dynamically communicating these assessments with an asset manager, building occupants, and other stakeholders presents significant challenges. Digital Twin (DT) technology has proven valuable in automating building management but has received less attention in the visual comfort field. This study proposes a fundamental DT architecture to efficiently evaluate visual comfort and light conditions in office environments. The DT framework integrates objective lighting measurements and occupant feedback, linking those to a virtual model using the linked data approach. A case study conducted in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, demonstrated that leveraging digital twins provides valuable insights into office workers’ visual comfort. This approach facilitates the identification of areas where occupants experience visual discomfort and detects spaces where lighting conditions (i.e., illuminance and Daylight Glare Probability) do not meet targeted thresholds. The proposed solution is prototyped in a web-based tool to demonstrate the model’s capabilities and allows for interactive engagement.