Weighted-Sum Optimization of Shopping-Mall Atrium Morphology Using a Field-Based Visual Satisfaction Proxy and sDA-Based Daylight Sufficiency

Daylighting in shopping-mall atriums affects both perceived visual quality and the availability of daylight for reducing electric-light use under daylight-responsive control. However, early-stage atrium design still lacks a reproducible workflow that connects field-based user-response evidence with parametric daylight simulation in retail settings. This study develops a weighted-sum design-search workflow for shopping-mall atrium morphology by combining a luminance-based visual satisfaction proxy with spatial daylight autonomy (sDA300/50%) as an annual daylight-sufficiency indicator. Morphological parameter ranges were derived from a survey of 150 atriums in 26 shopping malls in China, and three prevalent atrium types were retained for simulation-based testing. ClimateStudio/Radiance simulations were used to calculate scene mean luminance and sDA300/50%, and particle swarm optimization was used as a practical search algorithm under a fixed baseline weighting scenario. The reported high-scoring solutions reached sDA saturation, indicating that the final score differences were mainly governed by the luminance-based satisfaction term within the high-daylight-sufficiency region. This study contributes a retail-oriented, reproducible design-search workflow for early-stage atrium morphology decisions, while the results should be interpreted as scenario-based preferred solutions rather than statistically confirmed global optima or a complete visual-risk/energy-performance assessment.