Evaluating the impact of mosque morphology on worshipers' visual comfort: Simulation analysis for daylighting performance

Visual comfort includes the ability to provide sufficient daylight without exaggeration. When daylight levels are insufficient inside a place or when daylight is intense, inhabitants experience visual discomfort. This study examines visual comfort in prayer halls by investigating the effectiveness of daylighting performance, including daylight amounts, such as illuminance level and daylight factor, and glare, including daylight glare probability, in different mosque morphologies. The evaluation had done by applying a quantitative method via the most recently updated daylighting simulation software using Autodesk-Insight-360 for Revit-2023 and SolemmaClimateStudio for Rhinoceros-6. Results show that mosques with courtyard lighting have reduced glare, and windows placed uniformly along the vertical axis get lots of natural light. The study concluded that levels of visual comfort in the prayer halls, in turn, vary according to mosques morphology. The current research contributes to detecting visual discomfort in mosque architecture based on differences in typological and morphological design characteristics.