Walk any office floor at 3 p.m. and count the shades. On the west side most of them are down, and plenty are still down the next morning when the sun is on the other side of the building. Office window shades that nobody adjusts don’t control glare. They switch the daylight off, and the light the design team planned for never reaches the desk.
This guide is for workplace designers, tenant-improvement PMs and facility managers specifying shading for a floorplate. It covers why shades end up permanently closed, what the research on daylight and work actually supports, how to choose fabric facade by facade, when automation pays for itself, and how to retrofit an occupied floor. For reference installs, see Sun Glow’s commercial shading projects.
The Blinds-Down Problem
Glare is the trigger and the closed shade is the symptom. The real cost is the daylight, view and comfort the building was designed to deliver and doesn’t.
The pattern is consistent enough that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s facade research group sums it up in one line: occupants rarely adjust their shades. They lower them to deal with discomfort and forget to raise them later. LBNL notes that this cuts a building’s daylighting potential and leaves the space gloomy.
We call it blinds-down syndrome, and it shows up in three ways:
- The wrong fabric. A weave too open for the facade lets direct sun wash out screens, so the shade comes down and stays down.
- Nobody owns the shade. In an open-plan office the person by the window lowers it for their own monitor glare. Nobody else feels entitled to raise it.
- Too many shades to manage. On a full floor, adjusting dozens of shades as the sun moves is nobody’s job, so it doesn’t get done.
What the Research Says
The evidence on daylight, views and office work is real but modest. A specification that cites it carefully will hold up better in front of a client than one that overclaims.
The most-cited office work is the Heschong Mahone Group’s 2003 Windows and Offices study for the California Energy Commission. Across a call centre and a separate office group, a better outdoor view was associated with better results on some performance measures. Daylight on its own showed weaker and less consistent effects. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s review of the daylight and performance literature reaches a careful conclusion: given how few studies there are and how inconsistent their findings, no firm conclusions can yet be drawn about how daylight or view affects office work performance.
That changes how the argument is made, not whether to make it. WELL v2 treats daylight as a design requirement in its Light concept. L01 Light Exposure addresses getting light to occupants, L05 Daylight Design Strategies includes a solar-shading part that covers the building’s vertical envelope glazing, and L06 Daylight Simulation sets modelled daylight targets. Confirm current feature language against the WELL v2 standard before citing it in a project narrative.
How to cite this to a client Make the case on view, comfort and glare complaints, not on output gains. “People with views report better conditions, and shades that stay open keep the views” is defensible. A percentage productivity claim is not.
Fabric Strategy by Orientation for Office Window Shades
One fabric across every facade is the most common office specification, and it is why one side of the building is always too bright and another always too dim.
Openness factor, meaning the share of open weave in a screen fabric, sets the trade-off between view and glare. A tighter weave controls more glare and solar heat. A more open weave keeps more daylight and view. Colour matters as much as openness. Darker fabrics generally give a clearer view out and less glow on the fabric face, while lighter fabrics reflect more solar energy but can look bright when the sun is on them. For the fundamentals, see our guide to choosing openness factor.
| Facade | Sun condition | Fabric direction | Colour family | Control priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North | Mostly diffuse light; bright sky can still glare | The most open weave in the project’s range, or light-filtering | Light to mid tones | Low: manual is usually enough |
| East | Low direct sun straight into screens in the morning | Tighter weave than north | Darker, to keep the view out | High in the morning, clear by midday |
| South | Highest sun at midday; lower, deeper sun in a Canadian winter | Tighter weave, chosen with solar transmittance in view | Darker for view, or lighter where heat gain leads | High through the middle of the day and all winter |
| West | Low afternoon sun at the hottest point of the day | The tightest weave in the project | Darker, to keep the view out | Highest: the prime candidate for automation |
| Conference rooms | Screens and projection on any facade | Dual shade: screen fabric plus a blackout fabric | Screen to match the facade; blackout to suit the room | Per room, at the table |
The table sets direction, not values. Pull the actual openness factor, visible light transmittance (Tv) and solar transmittance (Ts) for each candidate fabric from Sun Glow’s fabric specification chart, and choose from the solar shade fabrics in the collection.
One Sun Glow project shows how this plays out. At the CSI Center for Social Innovation, an open-plan interior with perimeter offices and glass interior walls, windows face every exposure. The client needed to manage different levels of sun control, keep outward visibility, cut glare, keep tenants comfortable and absorb sound in the open workspace. The fabric selected was EVT at 4–5% openness in white, a Trevira fabric that is inherently fire retardant, has Oeko-Tex 100 certification, has sound-absorbing qualities and contains no PVC.
Specifying a curtain wall? Request fabric samples for your facade orientation and judge them against the glass they will hang behind.
Manual vs. Motorized on a Full Floor
At the scale of a floorplate, automation is less a convenience upgrade than the only reliable cure for blinds-down syndrome.
One manual shade in a private office works because one person owns it. Forty shades along an open-plan west wall don’t. Automation hands the job to a schedule. Sun Glow’s motorized options can raise or lower shades by time or light conditions, which is exactly what occupants forget to do.
WELL v2 likewise treats solar shading on envelope glazing as part of daylight design under L05, and high-performance buildings already run shading this way. At Queen Richmond Centre, a building targeting LEED® Gold, Sun Glow supplied automated light shelves pre-programmed to adjust to the sun’s direction, using Vision hardware, CS 103 Light Grey fabric and Somfy automation as part of a daylight-harvesting strategy built into the building technology platform. At Ace Offices in East York, a smaller renovation, Sun Glow used Stealth Automation with CS 105 Dark Grey fabric behind a 3″ Square Fascia so staff could manage light through the day.
Cost and benefit at scale
- Where automation earns its cost: east, south and west facades on open floors; hard-to-reach glazing; any zone that produces glare complaints today.
- Where manual is defensible: north facades, private offices with one occupant, and rooms used occasionally.
- The decision that can’t wait: Stealth motors are specified with the shade at order time. A shade ordered manual cannot be converted to motorized later, so settle the split before the order goes in.
Platform and power
The control requirement decides the platform. Sun Glow’s motorization guide sets out the split. Stealth motors carry Zigbee 3.0 and are controlled by remote, app or Bridge, but they have no wired or BMS control path. Somfy covers dry-contact and digital keypads, sun sensors and BMS interfaces. If a floor needs sun-sensor control or integration with the building system, that points to Somfy before anything else is compared.
On new fit-outs, DC power means a low-voltage run to each motorized opening, committed at framing. One DC power distribution panel serves up to 18 motors, or fewer where larger motors take two channels each. Electrical hookups and runs are by others. For wired, battery and PoE compared, see our guide to commercial motorized shade systems.
Meeting Rooms and Special Zones
A screen fabric that is right for the open floor is wrong for a room built around a display. Treat these rooms as their own zone in the schedule.
Presentation and video rooms
Conference rooms need two states: daylight with view for working sessions, and darkness for projection or video. Sun Glow’s Dual Shades fit two fabrics into one compact system behind the Dual Square Fascia, so the room can move between light filtering and full blackout. They can be manual or motorized.
Blackout fabric alone does not darken a room. Light gets in around the shade. Sun Glow’s U Channels block 99% of sunlight at the sides, and a fascia or cassette closes the gap at the head. Our guide to shade pockets, fascia and cassettes covers the head condition in detail.
Privacy zones
HR offices, interview rooms and executive offices need privacy at night as well as glare control by day. Screen fabrics lose their daytime privacy once the interior lights are brighter than the street, so these rooms usually need a semi-translucent or opaque privacy fabric, or the second shade of a dual system.
Reception and front-of-house
The reception wall is the part of the shading scheme a visitor sees first. That favours concealed hardware, such as a fabric-wrapped fascia or cassette, and a colour coordinated with the brand palette.
Retrofit Realities
Most office shading work happens on floors that are already occupied. The specification has to plan for the people as well as the product.
Measure once, accurately
On an occupied floor, every return visit is another disruption. Under Sun Glow’s Simple Service, trained installers employed by Sun Glow take the check measure and flag site issues. If they take an incorrect measurement, the shade is replaced at no additional cost. Products travel directly from production to site, and the service includes customer sign-off on completion.
Phase by floor or zone
- Sequence by facade priority. Do the west and south zones generating the glare tickets first. North can follow.
- Plan after-hours work early. Trips outside normal business hours, Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., need a separate quote, so build evening or weekend phases into the budget from the start.
- Clear the perimeter. Removing existing blinds and moving obstructions such as furniture are extra charges.
- Flag tall glazing. Heights over 10 feet need a separate quote, so identify atriums and double-height lobbies early.
Retrofit motorization without opening walls
Where no low-voltage wiring exists and opening walls is not an option, battery motors are the retrofit path. Sun Glow’s Stealth Rechargeable charges by USB-C, with a full charge lasting up to six months, and needs no electrician. Check two limits first: the rechargeable motor fits openings from 21 15/16″ wide, and Stealth has no wired or BMS control path. Sun Glow commercial projects are managed by a dedicated project coordinator from day one, with section detail drawings showing how the product integrates into the building.
Glare tickets or daylight — you don’t have to choose. Book a consultation and we’ll map fabrics and controls to every facade of your floorplate. Book a Consultation
FAQ
What shades are best for office glare?
Roller shades in a solar screen fabric matched to each facade: tighter weaves on east, south and west elevations, more open weaves on north. Darker colours generally keep a clearer view out. On high-glare facades, add automation so shades come down when the sun arrives and go back up when it leaves.
What openness factor is best for offices with monitors?
Screen-heavy zones on sunny facades call for the tighter end of a fabric range. Treat it as a per-facade decision, not one number for the whole building. Compare candidates by openness, Tv and Ts on the manufacturer’s specification chart. For reference, Sun Glow’s CSI Center project used a 4–5% openness fabric in an open office with windows on every exposure.
Are motorized shades worth it in offices?
On open floors and sun-exposed facades, usually yes. Automation solves the problem that manual shades on a shared floor have no owner, so they stay down. Private north-facing offices are often fine with manual control. Decide before ordering, because a manual shade cannot be converted to motorized later.
Do window shades affect employee productivity?
The research supports a careful claim, not a bold one. Studies have linked better outdoor views with better results on some performance measures, but reviews find the evidence too limited and inconsistent for firm conclusions. What shades reliably do is cut glare and keep views available, which affects comfort and complaints.
How do you install shades in an occupied office?
Measure accurately once, phase by floor or zone starting with the worst glare facades, and schedule after-hours work where the floor can’t be disrupted. Where there is no wiring, battery motors avoid opening walls.
