The philosophy of Illumination and the scientific knowledge of light show the significant impact to energy efficiency and the development of performance in a building. It is important to improve the intensity of daylight in classrooms through introducing various innovative design of window in order to reduce the non- performance behavior of students. Current study shows the illuminance level within the recommended range of 300 lx to 500 lx or higher reduced the students’ Arabic handwriting speed based on word per minute. Further in the process of ‘hafazan’ as a memorization process, reading and writing task must consider sufficient window to-wall ratio, optimum daylight level and reduce the glare effect at the position of ‘hafazan’ setting at 300mm height crossed leg (‘rehal’) working plane and 900mm table working plane as a comparison. This research had conducted at Kolej Genius Insan, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Nilai to identify the optimum illuminance level with window to-wall ratio of 30% and task performance at 300mm and 900mm working plane. Daylighting minimizes the artificial lighting with sensor or dimming strategies which can reduce by 19% during the passive daylight technique is applied. When the distribution of the daylight and illuminance level meet the uniformity at a lower working plane, the student’s performance is achieved within acceptable glare index. This optimum level of daylight performance range will benefit the designer to insert in the future of energy efficiency guideline and provide a sustainable building.

Lighting is desired for work and there is an impact on occupant satisfaction through their assessment with preferred luminous conditions in a daylit office. This study investigates whether the illuminance levels in office buildings meet the requirements for visual comfort based on existing guidelines through field measurements and surveys in government office buildings. This paper presents the literature that shows an overview of the investigation of daylight distribution, availability and illuminance levels in daylit offices. People’s awareness in luminous environments is captured by obtaining occupant’s feedback. A survey was conducted to find occupants’ responses to daylight availability by using four different open-plan layouts in office buildings. The acceptable illuminance levels are identified from the field study based on data measurement and HDR photo images, field surveys using questionnaires on occupants from different layouts in office buildings. This comparative study of daylight distribution in open-plan offices will provide the findings on preferred office layout and the occupant’s satisfaction through daylighting. It is observed that not all the office buildings have achieved Malaysian Standard 1525:2007 minimum WPI recommendation of 300–500 lux when electric lights are on. More than 60% of occupants, which are of different ages, genders and office activities showed the effect on visual discomfort in the office and the relationship between luminous conditions with activities and attitudes of people towards windows. The resulting key will provide the effects of daylighting on visual comfort, visual health and occupant satisfaction.

Starting in 2009 the government of Malaysia has stipulated that all government offices building to be incorporated with sustainable design features. However, the questions on the design still ponders and requires a research especially in the adoption of passive design strategies whether they have met the occupant visual comfort and taken all the consideration on the penetration of daylight. Qualitative survey has been conducted on the occupant’s perception toward visual comfort in selected working space and by using DAYSIM simulation to obtain an explicit comparison on the effect of glare inside the room to verify the survey analysis done earlier. Finding from the survey showed that 61.2% of the respondents agreed that there is glare from the windows of the office and 52.2% respondent agreed that internal shading reduced the discomfort glare from the windows. The research will be useful as basic recommendation on the indoor comfort environment especially for the occupant visual comfort in designing a government office building

Currently, the main environmental concerns encountered by most countries are energy and its consumption. A green lifestyle and energy efficiency (EE) could reduce daily energy consumption. Nevertheless, low awareness and knowledge of EE prevent proper green lifestyle practices to save energy and the environment. Thus, the study aims to examine building occupants’ EE and energy conservation awareness and practices based on Islamic perspectives. The study objectives are to examine the level of EE awareness and practices among Malaysian building occupants and incorporate the potential of Islamic teachings from al-Quran concerning energy consumption and conservation in the EE awareness campaigns. The study used the qualitative research method, which involved a literature review, observation, and narrative study. As a result, the significant relevance of EE awareness and practices along with Islamic teachings is explained further in this study. Moreover, instilling knowledge, creating awareness and encouraging occupants to implement EE practices, which consequently reduce energy demand and energy consumption, hence, mitigating the detrimental environmental impacts. The study is crucial in raising public awareness of the Islamic perspectives linked with energy conservation and provides a framework for future development plans that embody EE elements aligned with Islamic teachings.

Energy efficiency (EE) is crucial in addressing environmental issues and organisational performance. Energy awareness and knowledge is needed in promoting EE practices. This paper aims to review Maqasid Syariah (MS) knowledge in enhancing good EE practices, and the objectives are to investigate the EE awareness, knowledge and practices in Malaysia, plus to explore the importance of MS knowledge. Qualitative method was employed through literature review and narrative study. A conceptual model of the incorporation of MS knowledge into EE awareness and knowledge is introduced. This conceptual model could be implemented to develop an enhanced good EE practices among occupants.

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) energy has now become one of the most significant renewable energy alternatives for providing natural daylight and clean energy. As such, this study was conducted for the first time in Algeria to experimentally evaluate the BIPV window energy and lighting energy savings of a typical office building under the semi-arid climate condition. Apart from using the Energy Plus and Integrated Environment Solution-Virtual environment (IES-VE) energy simulation tools in the experimental validation, the daylighting control method and the dynamic Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) were also utilized to analyse the daylighting performance as well as the lighting energy of BIPV windows with different transparency levels at various cardinal orientations. The field measurements had revealed the overall energy model to be consistent and in good agreement with the EnergyPlus and the IESVE simulation models, where the tested PV module was found to have provided not only a 20% Visible Light Transmittance (VLT) of uniformed daylight with low illuminance level, but also thermal comfort and a considerable amount of clean energy. The simulated results had demonstrated a substantial improvement in cooling energy and glare reduction of the PV modules as compared to the base-model, where the only BIPV window configuration was achieved good area of UDI 300-700 lux is facing the South orientation and 30% VLT. In conclusion, the application of the thin film BIPV windows with different transparency and orientation levels can thus be regarded as an effective solution for minimizing the lighting energy consumption through its energy production instead of daylighting utilization.

Malaysia is ranked at the 56th place in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) after gradually falling from the 39th place in 2016. The CCPI is useful in assessing the climate change performance of 57 countries including the European Union. With the intention of mitigating negative impacts on the environment due to the emission of harmful substances, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have been developed by the United Nations General Assembly back in 2015. Thus, green development that fulfils the Green Building Index (GBI) criteria is important as guidelines in designing and developing buildings which are suitable to Malaysia’s tropical climate, environmental & developmental context, and cultural & social needs. In addition, it helpsin tacklingthe issue of climate change in Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to investigate the façade performance of green office buildings in Malaysia based on GBI criteria. Besides, this paper was conducted to explore the matrix assessment on GBI criteria along with Maqasid Syariah principles.Through this study, it is verified that the façade designs that satisfied the GBI criteria in Malaysia are in-lined with Maqasid Syariah principles. Keywords: building facades, material, maqasid syari’I, daylight.

Natural daylight is a renewable energy source that is important in photobiology study which looks into the effect of light to living organism. Students' visual comfort satisfaction due to efficient daylight in a classroom are highlighted in the physical of the building and learning space such as windows and openings. One of the factor that influences the design of classrooms environmental condition. Environmental condition consideration includes the daylighting requirement for classrooms. Various standards and guidelines on daylighting consideration have been developed in Malaysia including the recommendation on Window-to-Floor Ratio (WFR) and illuminance level. However, the recommended WFR may not achieve the recommended illuminance level. This paper evaluates whether the recommended WFR design achieve the recommended acceptable illuminance level. Two classrooms in Kolej Permata Insan, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan with different orientation were selected for the study. Integrated Environmental Solution (IESVE) simulation software is used for daylight evaluation. The WFR of the two selected classrooms were set to the recommended 20%. Simulation results shows that the illuminance level for both classrooms are higher than recommended. The simulation also shows that the daylight distribution in the classrooms are not uniform, thus creating inefficient daylight condition. Therefore, the WFR recommends further studies with additional of daylighting design strategy considerations. � 2018 Web Portal IOP. All rights reserved.