applications / heat / study 10
Draft for review
Sun shading
New buildings cast shadows on their neighbours. We compute exactly where those shadows fall, hour by hour and season by season, for permits and for design.
- Element
- Heat
- Assesses
- Shadow paths and daylight impact
- Basis
- Solar geometry for the site
- Output
- Hourly and seasonal shadow maps
The question
Who loses light, and when?
A shadow study answers a question that decides permits and settles objections: what a proposed building takes away from the daylight of its neighbours and of the public space around it.
The answer varies through the day and across the year. A massing that is harmless in June can overshadow a courtyard for the whole of a December afternoon, so a single representative image is rarely enough.
What we compute
Solar geometry against real massing
We build the proposal and its surroundings in three dimensions and compute the path of the sun for the latitude of the site. From that we derive where every shadow falls at any hour of any date, including the equinoxes and solstices that permit procedures normally ask for.
The output covers both the existing and the proposed situation, so the change attributable to the project is separated from the shadowing that was already there.
What it supports
Permit files and design changes
The study is normally prepared for a permit application, where it forms the objective basis for assessing impact on neighbouring properties, gardens, terraces and public squares.
Used earlier, it also guides the design. Testing massing options against the shadow they cast often finds a form that keeps the programme while removing the objection, which is a considerably cheaper moment to discover it.
Other studies
Heat