How can a school be positioned on its site to take advantage of path of the sun?
Think about your arrival at school in the morning during the fall and spring months versus the winter months. If your school is located in the northern hemisphere, it is likely that you start school in the dark each morning for several months during the winter. Due to the tilt of the earth, locations closer to the equator experience fairly consistent sunrise and sunset times throughout the year. But the further north you travel, the more widely these sunrise and sunset times vary. When architects make decisions about how school buildings are designed, they must consider how much sunlight the buildings will receive at various times throughout the day. The size and location of the windows in classroom, for example, will impact how much electric lighting the school must use at various times throughout the school day. Likewise, as the sun rises and warms a location, the air temperature typically increases, which impacts the amount of heating or cooling needed in the building. This set of m
