THE SOLAR ENVELOPE

SUBMITTED TO:
AR.DEEPTI VYAS
AR.PURVEE SHARMA
SUBMITTED BY:
MEENAL CHAUHAN
B.ARCH 8
TH
SEM SEC A
The solar envelope
how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels
The concept of solar envelope provides a design tool by which
to understand and implement solar access to building for
passive solar heating, solar control and day lighting.
At the urban scale, the concept of solar envelope provides a
means to regulate development within imaginary boundaries
derived from the suns relative motion.
Buildings within this envelope will not overshadow their
surroundings during critical period of the day and year.
The aim is to regulate how and when neighbors may shadow
one another.
Olynthus: A model for solar access
In the fifth century BC,Greece.The
streets were built perpendicular to each
other, running long in the east-west
direction, so that all houses (five on each
side of the street) could be built with
southern exposure.
all houses were consistently built around
a south-facing courtyard. The houses
that faced south on the street and south
to the sun were entered through the
court.The houses that faced north to the
street and south to the sun were entered
through a passageway that led from the
street through the main body of the
house and into the court, from which
access was gained to all other spaces.
the height of buildings was strictly
limited so that each courtyard received
an equal amount of sunshine.


The ancient greek planner of olynthus
arranged houses to have two fronts: one to
the sun and one to the street.
Acoma: A model for the solar envelope
The Ancient Pueblo People built a number of sophisticated solar
oriented communities during the 11th and 12th centuries AD.
The Ancient Pueblo People constructed terraced buildings of up to
three floors high. Rows of houses step down to the south. These
were buildings that would fit perfectly in a solar envelope with
slanting lines.
It consists of three rows of houses built along streets running east
and west, so that each building faces south.
Walls are of thick masonry. Roof and terraces are of timber and
reeds, overlaid with a mixture of clay and grass.
The suns low winter rays strike directly south facing masonry walls
where energy is stored during day, then released to warm inside
spaces throughout the cold nights.
In contrast, the summer sun passes high overhead, striking directly
the roof terraces where the suns energy is less effectively stored. East
and west walls are covered by adjacent houses thus further reducing
harmful summer time effects.
Houses do not shadow one another during the cold winter months
and, by sharing side walls, they offer protection to each other in
summer . And the rows are spaced to avoid winter shadowing of
terraces and heat-storing walls. It is this critical relationship of
building-height to shadow-area

Street pattern
The solar envelope's size, shape, and orientation are greatly
influenced by the street patterns of urban settlement
Typically, throughout the midwest and the west, streets run
with the cardinal points so that rectangular blocks extend
only in the east-west and north-south directions. But in Los
Angeles, where most of the solar-envelope research has
been done, there are two street grids.
U.S. LAND ORDINANCE DIAGONAL SPANISH GRID
Shadow pattern in
streets laid out on
the U.S. land
ordinance indicate
that E-W streets
are specially
uncomfortable:
overshadowed
and cold in winter,
bright and hot in
summer.
Shadow patterns
in streets laid out
on the Spanish
grid are indication
of greater
comfort: warming
winter sun and
cooling summers
shade in all
streets
Two Street Grids in Los Angeles
DESIGN IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOLAR ENVELOPE

Any spaces that is oriented from east to west strengthens our
experience of the seasons(Fig.a) . One main wall is nearly always
dark on the other side of the space, a shadow line moves gradually
up the wall and then down again. To experience the whole cycle
takes exactly one year.
Any space that is oriented from north to south sharpens our
experience of a day (Fig.b). Both main walls are lighted, but at
different hours. Every morning, light from the east will cast a
shadow that moves quickly down the opposite wall and across the
floor. Every afternoon , light from the west will cast a shadow that
crosses the floor and climbs the opposing wall. To experience the
whole cycle takes from before sunrise until after sundown.
Where east-west and north-south spaces pierce each other, we can
experience two measures of time (Fig.c). The common volume
intensifies both a seasonal and a daily cycle. It combines them,
laying one over the other.
A long E-W space
accentuates a
seasonal rhythm
A long N-S space
accentuates a
daily rhythm
N-S and E-W spaces
intersect, the rhythm is
contrapuntal