How do I reduce glare in our sunlit design room?
Gauze or shades in there would kind of ruin the architectural aesthetics, it seems to me. What you want to accomplish is more diffuse light, less direct glare from the sky. Inside gauze, baffles (like on a fluorescent tube fixture) or shades in there would accomplish the needed diffusion but would kind of ruin the architectural aesthetics. So (you said outside the box), what about an outside the skylight solution: Get painters to spray a very thin coat of white paint on the outside of the glass. This will cut the light down some (maybe 25%), and will add more scatter (diffusion) to the remaining light, reducing glare. To help sell this idea to the beancounters: reducing the light coming in through the glass will cut down on heat gain also, so it will save on air-conditioning expense. It’s possible the skylight already has some kind of anti-glare glass rather than clear glass, but obviously it’s not enough and the paint is needed to add diffusion. You may have seen this concept used in
Thinking some more it looks like the glass of the building is a pyramid or long triangle shape. What I think would be cool would be to take strips of fabric and make it look a bit like the inside of a tent. I’m picturing long thin strips or triangles out of a light nylon or other synthetic material, lots of different colors. Probably should discuss the idea at a fabric store because you want something light enough in color or thickness to let a lot of ambient light through, while blocking the glare. Also, the fabric should be UV resistant so it doesn’t fade too much with time. Then all you have to do is figure out a way to attach all the ends along the apex and the other ends around the base the windows or atrium. Probably should have a bit of drape to the pieces to have a nice aesthetically pleasing curve, though not so much that they end up sagging and touching the beams. Different strips could also have different drapes so that some end up partially obscuring others. Should look pre
