The Fundamentals of Great Design: Light + Orientation
Tastes vary and trends change, the basic ingredients of good design have been understood for centuries. They transcend fashion and personal taste. If you get the fundamentals right, the building and space becomes timeless.
Everyone wants a south facing garden because they know its bright and that the sun shines in the garden and on the back of the house for the most part of the day. The rooms where you spend more time should be located on the southern side of the building, if possible, as they will receive a really good direct sunlight throughout the day and "passive heating" in winter.
However, that’s not the full story.
When designing spaces and functions we need to understand the difference between daylight and sunlight.
Sunlight is easy – these are visible shafts of sunlight that enter your home. You can feel the heat and see the temporary increase in light within the space as the sun passes by throughout the day.
Daylight is often under appreciated. This is the brightness of the room, filling the space with a consistent light level.
NORTH - North facing light provides indirect stable daylighting, this is a different quality of light that can be more desirable in certain circumstances – such as in art galleries or museums, where you want to avoid glare direct sunlight will damage the art and artefacts. In your home, this is a suitable location for an office or bedroom, as these tend to benefit from stable light with less glare.
EAST – East is a good orientation for rooms that are occupied in the morning. It offers natural light and warmth during the morning hours, and it gets milder in the afternoon. During those rare hot summer’s nights, this orientation is the best one to sleep in.
WEST - A western orientation get sunlight in the evenings, and would suit spaces like a kitchen, dining or living area. Care should be taken to avoid overheating in summer and glare from the low sun in the winter.
Borrowed light
A trick architects use is borrowing light from one orientation to add light to a room of a different orientation. For example, by adding an east facing roof light or high-level window to a north facing room you can borrow the direct sunlight in the mornings. Or adding a rooflight above a stairs. It’s a way of gaining daylight, where views or fire escape are not required.
I love roof lights for that reason!
“Under similar conditions, roof windows are shown to provide at least twice as much light as vertical windows of the same size, and three times more light as dormers of the same size. The roof window also provides a larger variety of light levels, which increases the visual interest of the room.”
Average window and door sizes are getting larger, and with triple glazing less heat is lost, meaning that we are increasingly having to deal with overheating on south facing facades and some kind of awning or blind will have to be considered.
How your home is oriented will affect the amount of direct natural light you get and the internal temperature your house will reach. This in turn will affect the amount of lighting and heating you use.