Orienting the House: A Study of the Placing of the House with Relation to the Sun's Rays

by American Face Brick Association

Residence, Highland Park, Illinois
N. Max Dunning, Architect

Living where you do, somewhere between 30° and 50° north latitude, the sun, summer or winter, will never pass overhead at noon but shine on a slant from the south, very much more in winter than summer. This slant of the sun, however, will not concern you practically so much in placing your house, as will the time and direction of sunrise at the extremes of June and December, and the position of the sun the successive hours of the day, at those times of the year.

You have certain rooms in which you especially want the sun, morning or afternoon; or a porch you want as much in the shade as possible, let us say. In tracing the direction of the sun’s rays, do not think of them as converging or as spreading out. Think of them rather as coming in great, broad, parallel bands so that no matter how large your house may be, the moment one side gets the sun, the opposite parallel side falls into shade. The broad band of parallel lines streaming from the sun, as seen on the chart, is meant to illustrate this.

Now cut a piece of light cardboard in the shape of your house, at a greatly reduced scale, with all its porches and projections, as, for example, the blank form on the chart. Attach it with a pin at the center of the chart, so it may be easily turned. First place your house facing directly east. You will see on midsummer day that the north and east elevations will get the first morning sun. About 8 o’clock the sun will leave the north side and begin to illuminate the south elevation. At noon, the sun will pass from the east to the west side of the house, and then, at 4 o’clock, leave the south and creep back to the north side of the house, shining on west and north sides from then on until its setting between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening.

Residence, Glencoe, Illinois
Robert E. Seyfarth, Architect

At the opposite season of the year, that is, in midwinter, your house, still faced directly east, will have the first sun between 7 and 8 o’clock in the morning on the east and south sides. At noon, the east side will be deserted for the west, and from then on the south and west sides of the house will have the sun until its setting between 4 and 5 o’clock. Thus, in the winter, the north side of your house will get no sun at all. This would hardly be a good place for the kitchen, though it would be well enough in the summer, as the sun would be out of it by 8 o’clock in the morning and not return until 4 o’clock in the afternoon when its rays are shorn of much of their midday strength. You know, of course, that during the changing seasons or the changing hours of the day, the sun’s warmth depends largely on the slant of its rays. In the summer, the north side would be a good place for a shady porch most of the day. However, the east side of the house would give you a shady porch from noon till sunset. But a porch around the northeast corner would give you shade from 8 o’clock in the morning clear through the day until sunset.

By turning your house one way or another from this direct east and west position, you can see what modifications of sun and shade you get. Suppose you turn it northeast, almost facing the morning sun on midsummer day. The front of the house would directly get the rising sun between 4 and 5 o’clock in the morning. At 6 o’clock, the south front would come into the sunlight. At half-past 10 o’clock, the east front would fall into shade for the rest of the day, while the west front would begin to catch the sun. By 2:30 o’clock in the afternoon, the south side would be in the shade for the rest of the day and the north side would get the sun from then on till sunset, between 7 and 8 o’clock. A porch on the east front of this house would be in the shade all the summer day after half-past 10 o’clock. But, in the winter, it would not be so fortunate as the house faced to the cardinal points, for, as just indicated, it would get the sun only on two sides all day long; and yet the summer advantages might more than compensate. Try slighter turns than those suggested, and you may get just the result you want for a given room or porch.

The placing of your house for the sun is really a problem of settling on the rooms or porches you want favored, and then letting the other portions of the house take care of themselves. In determining these questions of sun and shade on your house, due consideration must be given to neighboring structures, trees, or portions of the house that might otherwise get the sun if it were not for certain extensions, such as bays, porches, L’s, and the like. Of course, nearby hills or mountains would have a marked effect on just when you got the sun in the morning or lose it in the evening, no matter where or when the sun really rose and set.