Charlemagne Solar Studies

So the sun moves…

A key part of the design process is studying how sunlight moves throughout the day and changes over the course of a year. How the light from the sun moves in, around and through building.

For a residential project in Long Beach, CA, we looked at how room additions and expansions were impacted throughout the day by the sun’s path across the sky. Did the bedroom get sunlight in the morning? Can we create a second floor office that gets only indirect sunlight?  Can clerestory windows let the sunlight dance around the living room all day long? How does the kitchen stay bathed in light while being so close to the property line fence and neighboring houses?  With such a dense backyard, will the pool be in sun or shadow? All of these questions can be answered through a solar study—digitally and physically studying the path of the sun. 

First, a look at the property with the existing structure and its neighbors.

We’re looking to understand context. How close, how tall are our neighbors? When does their house cast a shadow over our property? Since this project had an existing house that we were adding to…what part of the house enjoy’s morning sunlight and how do you witness the sun set while in the back yard?

Early space planning with the sun’s influence. Adding in a layer of breezed and asking the client about traffic flow day to day and for visitors.

The staggered volumes create a lot of surface area for windows to grab the sunlight and bring it indoors.  As a result, the afternoon shadows across the back yard create a playful jog.

The two story portion of the addition, oriented on the North/South axis peeks up to grab the morning sun and then provides a big block of shade in the afternoon to the back yard.

For another project that relied heavily on solar studies to influence the design, see our Barn Kit project.