MDS Building + Construction, Wanaka (2026)

06/11/2023

our latest project: a small transportable house with great performance

13/02/2023

HOME DESIGN HINT: Designing for the movement of the sun

I firmly believe this ...

The most important thing to know when designing your home is this:

Understand how the sun moves across your site, and design your future home (whether building or renovating) with that movement in mind.

Where the sun is positioned at your site is specific to where you're located, the time of year and the time of day.

When you understand how to design with this in mind, you'll be able to allow the sun to spill into your home in the cooler months. And you'll be able to shade your home during the hotter times of the year, keeping it cool (naturally).

[This is part of passive solar design].

Doing this will:
> help your home feel fantastic, and you feel fantastic in it
> lower the costs of heating and cooling your home artificially (which accounts for 40% of most electricity bills)
> improve your health and well-being (it's scientifically proven that natural light does this!)
> lower your anxiety and stress (natural light is great for this)

In this image (a section through a home design), you can see the sun angles drawn for different times of the year, and how the position of the roof is enabling shade over the deck at the Summer Solstice, whilst lower sun angles at cooler times of the year, are able to access the home's outdoor and interior areas.

I used this to illustrate to the homeowner that, even though the roof is high (which they wanted to feel that sense of openness), it would still provide necessary shade.

Draw these sun angles on your own home's design for your location ... or better yet, work with a designer who can use three-dimensional computer software to locate your home geographically, and then model the movement of the sun, showing you where shadows and sunlight will be at different times of the year and day.

Discuss this in your interviews with potential designers to know if they'll be able to help you understand this whilst designing your future home.

Want more info on this?

Podcast season 1 is a great place to start. You can see the full index here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast/season-1/

I hope you found that super helpful,
Amelia, UA x