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The last thing you want to have to install on a building are unsightly blinds and sunshades. While too much sunlight might be harmful both to fabrics, wall surfaces and art objects, not to mention human skin, a room which lets in no natural light tends to be dreary. The key is to install external louvres that are elegant and functional and effectively protect valuable objects and décor from sun damage. Incorporating brise soleil in your shading system makes for comprehensive protection and hence sustainability. What’s more, the ready availability of glass louvres from specialist suppliers means that your shades can be aesthetic as well as practical.

Putting incongruous additions on the exterior of a building can be controversial with neighbours, local councils and – if the building receives customers or clients – visitors. You need not worry about defacing extant architecture by erecting stylish louvres, however. They are an truly aesthetic choice, as well as having major environmental benefits. Providers supply louvres engineered to meet a broad range of requirements. As they can be made from glass, your shades can be silk-screened, tailor cut, etched, coloured or coated according to your needs. Neither do your louvres have to be stationary – they can also be installed in motorised, movable positions. Louvres are more than just an add-on. With a great breadth of design available, more and more architects are integrating louvres into buildings.

The question of the resilience of your shading system is worth considering. Extra resilient shading systems made from aluminium and stainless steel will withstand high winds and loads of snow. As a result of their lightweight frames, vibration is also eradicated. Whatever the façade of the building in question, whether commercial, public, old or new, a range of fixings and colour coatings can be chosen from in order to integrate shading systems with their immediate surrounds.

Most importantly, a good quality shading system will preserve the longevity of objects such as valuable works of art, save costs on air conditioning, reduce glare and increase privacy. First and foremost direct sunlight is prevented from entering a building. Significantly, direct sunlight is the chief cause of heat gain and as shading systems help keep things cool, you’ll cut down on your air conditioning bill. Moreover the environment will benefit, as ozone-depleting gases produced by air conditioning units will be correspondingly minimised.

To sum up, brise soleil enables natural ventilation to be a practical option without the loss of privacy or risk of light damage. external louvres are an successful protective measure, and reduce running costs. Glass louvres combine function with style. If you are environmentally conscious when it comes to architecture and light damage, turn to a comprehensive shading system solution.

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In its simplest form the brise soleil is hardly more than a textured wall, and yet in some of its better-known incarnations this architectural device is stunning and detailed in its execution. The Milwaukee Art Museum is world-famous for its folding, automatic wing-style brise soleil. However, in other instances they just take the form of a concrete surface – horizontal or vertical – with spaces in. The concept is that these will let through some but not all of the sunlight that hits them. The exact amount will rely on a number of factors, including the climate, latitude, direction the building is facing and the time of day and year. Variations on this theme are glass louvres and other forms of external louvres. Although they may seem very different, the same principles are used, and for the same ends.

Effectively, the purpose of all these things is to limit the amount of sunlight coming through them at key points, whilst still making the most of it at other times. Take a large, modern office block, for example, which may have a broad south-facing window. In the winter this will be a asset to the building (so long as it is well insulated) since it will let in large amounts of sunlight – thereby cutting down on artificial lighting and heating and their associated expenses. Passive, natural heat and light are usually more comfortable than central heating and electric lights. However, in the summer such a large window would present a significant problem. Without good shading, the amount of heat and light it lets in would make the office space hotter than was comfortable (or, in some jurisdictions, legal). The purpose of the brise soleil and external louvres are to vary the incoming sunlight at different times of the day and year. Low-angle morning/evening and winter light is encouraged; hotter, high-angle midday and summer sun is not.

Some glass louvres are equipped with photovoltaic systems to generate power as well as limit unwanted light and heat. In other cases, external louvres are automated so that their angle can be adjusted for the exact circumstances and weather conditions; the one-size-fits-all approach is useful up to a point, but can often be improved. But even a basic brise soleil can make a huge difference, cutting down the need for heating and air conditioning, and therefore improving energy bills in the process.

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Brutalist architecture is frequently decried these days as the epitome of ugliness and drabness that exhibits a general ambivalence towards its inhabitants. The fact remains, however, that the avant-garde architects at the forefront of this building style – Le Corbusier, for example – were actually most enthused by the idea of making life more efficient. While beautiful but dysfunctional buildings increasingly require additions such as brise soleil, glass louvres or external louvres to keep them aerated, insulated and well-lit, the likes of The Barbican in London has these kinds of sensible instruments already built into its structure. Of course, many people would not want to sacrifice old or attractive buildings that contain within in them quirks and memories. Most people would not want to rebuild whole towns and cities using Brutalist master Le Corbusier as a guide. But the fact remains that we still hanker after more efficient living and working spaces that are more comfortable because the air circulates within more freely and the sun does not come glaring in.

The brise soleil actually optimises heat flow through buildings, meaning that greatly contrasting ice-cold and stuffy rooms within the same building can be a thing of the past. Certainly, these features turn buildings into better ‘machines for living’. Intelligent and environmentally friendly as heat balancing systems, brise soleils have the added benefit of helping to reduce our heating bills: you won’t find yourself turning a radiator up to full blast in one particularly chilly room any more because the device redistributes and balances heat fairly and appropriately between larger and cold and smaller, usually warmer rooms.

At a time when we are all striving to be thriftier though energy expenses are rising, such a ventilation and heating system really is a worthwhile investment. Beyond the home, the workplace can also benefit from modern systems that maximise the efficiency of our offices. Very frequently workers delight in and benefit from getting direct sunlight as they work but in some buildings pleasant brightness can quickly turn into a headache-inducing glare. To minimize this unwanted side-effect an external louvre is recommended: consisting of extendible slats akin to a mechanical awning, this piece of architectural ingenuity can be rolled out at the times when the sun is at its harshest and rolled back again at will. Glass louvres can function similarly but, tailored to the individual’s needs, are often the first choice of architectural style hunters.

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If you work in a modern building then you probably have broad, expansive windows that give the room an airy, open feel and allow in plenty of sunlight. This has a number of advantages. For starters, you cut down on lighting bills – and sunlight is far better than electric lights. It’s brighter, and the mixture of wavelengths is (by definition) more ‘natural’, meaning that people generally feel better in the sun than under artificial lights. It also decreases heating bills. The problem comes when it’s summer, and the building can overheat. Then, you have a different issue, since you have to spend money you saved on heating on new air conditioning. Another solution is to retrofit a brise soleil, or glass louvres. External louvres can be an effective way of having the best of both worlds – allowing the sun to light your premises in the winter, but not overheating them in the summer.

There are a number of variants on the theme, and the particular version will depend on your circumstances – your climate, for starters, but also where your building is positioned and which way it faces. Some louvres are movable, and can be controlled from minute-to-minute to react to conditions on the day. Others are fixed, though these can still be highly effective. One of the most simple but helpful types is a ‘shelf’ which admits low-angle winter sun, or light at the start of the day when the sun is still low in the sky. In the summer, or the middle of the day, when the sun tends to be overhead, the shelf blocks its light from the windows.

The brise soleil – French for ‘sun breaker’ – is a permanent sun barrier that can take a variety of forms. Sometimes it is little more than a horizontal surface projecting from the side of the building. On other occasions they are more complex, perhaps being slatted to admit a proportion of the sun, or only sun at certain times of day or year. These, along with glass louvres (which can be used in conjunction with a sun breaker), are effective solutions to managing sunlight, which can result in large savings for your business. If this is something that your office finds a problem, then external louvres might be something to look into.

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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