Despite of the different perceptions, daylight it is mostly known as a good thing. Accordingly, every building design process is full of decisions made in pro of it. However, many of these decisions are based solely on the designer’s experience and educated common sense. The issue is that, even if experience and common sense are crucial for designing, the problem of predicting in detail how much daylight will be available on a space is hardly addressable by using only educated guesses. Errors in the designer’s decisions will not be fatal, but they can lead to overheating, glare, darkness and excessive solar heat gains and cooling energy consumption, among others.
Some of the problems mentioned above may be avoided by means of tools that help verify what the designer is thinking. One of the most common examples of such tools area simulation tools. Consequently, Groundhog is a lighting simulation tool that intends to expand the use of lighting simulation, with the purpose of enhancing the interior quality of buildings.