architypes.net - Control Excessive Sunlight

While it is important to provide plenty off natural light for practical and emotional reasons, it is also important to provide a means to control the intensity of direct sunlight. Excessive direct sunlight can cause problems of glare, making some tasks more difficult.

Excessive direct sunlight can also result in excessive cooling costs in places where air conditioning is used.

Particularly in temperate climates, one wishes to maximize passive solar heating during winter months, while minimizing solar heat gain during summer months.

Bris soleil - sunshading devices over or around windows - are effective means by which to control excessive sunlight.

When appropriately sized and positioned above south-facing windows, bris soleil can block much of the direct sunlight during summer months when the sun is high in the sky, while allowing direct sunlight during winter months when the sun is lower in the sky.

Deciduous trees (trees which loose their leafs during winter time) can serve as very effective shading devices in temperate climates. Appropriately located, they can block sun in summer months when one wishes to limit solar heat gain, while not significantly blocking sun in winter months when one wishes to maximize solar heat gain.

Ideally, in such climates buildings should be sited to ...