KJ Tait, were appointed by CDA Architects, on behalf of S1 Developments, to carry out an assessment of the daylight available at and around their proposed new residential development located at the Ocean Drive gap site in Leith.

The project consisted of the provision of:

• Vertical Sky Component Calculation to the existing Cala development to the South.
• Average daylight factor calculations on the proposed rooms within the Skyliner Scheme to ensure high internal daylight standards were met.
• Sunpath diagrams to ensure new communal areas achieved the required sunlight levels.

We were able to demonstrate that the development satisfies the technical guidance outlined in the BRE document “Site layout and planning for daylight and sunlight: a guide to good practice” in terms of the impact upon neighbouring properties. This is the industry standard guidance used for daylighting within the UK.

Of the three adjacent facades evaluated as part of this study, all elevations fully met the recommendations of BRE guidance and Edinburgh Technical Guidance with regards to the vertical sky component analysis.

The proposed new gardens were also shown to achieve the BRE guidance for sunlight to the spaces.

IES Radiance was used to assess the rooms within the proposed development which did not pass the ‘no sky line’ approach. All rooms comply with the 1% ADF required for bedrooms and 1.5% for living rooms.