Follow the sun!

With the development of our scientific understanding of the sun we have harnessed its energy for our daily uses. Interestingly enough, in the past, it was thought to be the chariot of the titan Helios. It was the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras who reasoned it was a sphere of hot plasma. This was the point in history where the rays of the sun were used for the development of mankind. ArchWorld met up with Chartered Archt. Gayan Herath who shed light on this aspect of design.

“The sun is the brightest star in the Earth’s solar system. Not only does the sun give us sunshine, it is also a valuable source of heat energy. The sun can be considered the ‘life giver’ of all living things on Earth, for without the sun, many living organisms would cease to exist. I believed mankind has always sought ways to harness the power of the sun for their daily needs and uses. In designing buildings and structures in tropical context, as architects we have constantly focused our attention on the sun,” explained Herath.

The sun has been both a bane as well as an aid for building designers.

“Too much sunlight will lead to excessive heat gain in to the buildings. On the other hand, if incorporated properly into the design of the building, sunlight can be used as a complement to light interior facades and rooms. Hence architects today must not only design buildings to collect energy from the sun to provide heating and lighting, but also to reject solar energy when it can lead to overheating of the building. This is known as passive solar architecture. The main goals of Passive solar design are to reduce the fossil fuel consumption of buildings as well as produce buildings that act in conjunction with natural forces and not against them,” said Herath

When building in tropics, it’s important to understand sun and the sun’s path so the building can fully utilize the available solar energy. Building shape and building orientation, minimizing the solar gain into the building and size of openings doors and windows are very much significant aspects

Key aspects

As architects the key aspects that should be considered in passive solar building designs are:

* * Lighting consideration: how we use daylight as a sources of lights

The main aims in daylighting a building are to (1) get significant quantities of daylight as deep into the building as possible, (2) to maintain a uniform distribution of daylight from one area to another, and (3) to avoid visual discomfort and glare

Shading consideration

The sun will always cast a shadow on any object. Only the length, shape and size of the shadow will change with respect to the sun’s position in the sky throughout the year. When designing buildings, it is important to notice the amount of shade cast on the building and its interior, so these shadows improve the special qualities in interior, secondly how its shadow will affect its surroundings to create shading areas.

Heating consideration.

The sun is a valuable source of heat energy. Similar to natural light is heat. Countries in the tropics do not want excessive heating from the sun.

“Wind is also a significant consideration in tropics. In a commercial aspect, wind can be a renewable source of energy and micro level natural ventilation is a major aspect in building design - cross ventilation promotes cooler indoor environments,” added Herath.

Herath’s design approaches are based on progression within the building. Enveloping site lines and visual connections are very important.

“These visual lines can be enriching with natural aspects including trees and water. Walls are mainly creating the skin of the building so as to envelop. Because we are in the tropics, sometimes solar heat gain may be excessive, so wall selection will depend on the material usage, aesthetic, and the availability of material in local context,” stated Herath

Building materials vary with respect to how much energy is needed to produce them.

“I like to use a neutral color pallet combining with natural vegetation / trees in my design approaches. So green is part of my color pallet. Secondly white, cement colors are widely used in my designs which I think is soothing to our eyes,” added Herath.

Sound is a considerable factor, specially designing in urban context. Architects sometimes develop strategies to eliminate excessive sound come in to the building.

“When we design most of the residential building and hotels in an urban fabric, we use trees as a natural barrier/ buffer zone, to reduce excessive sounds come in to the buildings. Most important aspect is how you create the sound? In my designs, I use natural water to create the sound. It depends on the kind of space available. According to that, water cascading, water drops and shallow water running create that liveliness and give a different sound to a particular space.

Secondly with trees / the natural environment within the building we can invite living animals’ and birds in to the man-made built environment,” shared Herath.

A House is the ultimate tranquil entity that enriches living.

“Designing a house/ building is a challenge for any architect. The key in this approach is to identify the client’s requirement. Developing strategies to respond to the contextual and natural forces within the topography is must. If you can bring natural aspects into the design and integrate the activities within the building, you can make a harmonious balance between the building and its users,” said Herath.

Trees are major component in our ecological systems. Most of our design approaches are based on the existing topography of the site.

“It’s important to have site selection, especially, in large scale projects to protect green fields and preserve habitat and natural resources. In most of the cases our intention was to keep to the maximum the existing greenery and incorporate that into building design. In some cases we try to reduce the building foot print in order to minimize the damage to the flora in the site. Or we introduce new trees to the micro context,” explained Herath.

Herath believes that our ancient civilizations were more sustainable and technologically were far ahead than other civilizations on earth.

“It is proven by our ancient civilization- when studying ancient ‘stupa,’ Buddhist monuments, our religious buildings and our advance irrigation systems. Of Course in the present day we are technologically advanced. Our society has a different set of problems. Most of the large scale projects are not environmentally sustainable and these consume a huge amount of resources,” added Herath

“Robots will never take the place of the architect, because unique outcomes and innovative solutions found in architectural design comes with the intuitive process. Technology can’t take over the intuitive aspect and creativity of the designer. Technology can be used to smoothen the post process of design work such as building modeling, estimation ,drawings and visualization,” summed up Herath.

Pictures by Siripala Halwala