As any good architect will tell you, the sun can play a huge role in the design of a building. Even here in the UK with our somewhat unpredictable climate, the sun can present a real problem to buildings that contain large areas of glazing, be that a straight forward glass curtain wall, a glazed atrium structure or individual windows. Excessive solar penetration into the internal space of a building can cause issues such as uncontrolled heat gain and glare. This can drastically increase overhead costs, such as air conditioning and decrease productivity output, which is why we design solar shading solutions for new and existing buildings.
The purpose of solar shading is, in short, to shade the building (especially glazed structures) from the sun, while still letting in as much natural light as possible. But while this may sound simple, in practice it is a little more difficult.
Each day here in the northern hemisphere the sun, as you know, rises in the east and sets in the west; because of the Earth’s shape it does this in an arc across the sky, reaching its peak at noon. This means that the angle of the sun hitting your windows varies with each hour of the day, which, in practice, means your solar shading needs to cover a large amount of space while not blocking out too much natural light.
As if this arcing of the sun did not make things complicated enough, the arc changes throughout the year: in the winter it is at a relatively low angle, while in the summer it is directly above us. This is all to do with the angle on which the earth rotates.
In reality, what this means – especially for south-facing windows which get the sun almost all day long – is that the sun can really heat up that side of the building, or make it so bright no one can work there. Adding solar shading to your building can help to both reduce costs associated with overheating and add a great architectural feature to your building. This additional design can of course be subtle, or you can really create a memorable exterior that will make your building stand out from the crowd.
There are many existing types of solar shading, or it can be custom designed for you. The main question is what you are looking to do with it.
