the sun and the sombrero

The Revit model for El Sombrero has been a work-in-progress. As the details come into focus we will be updating the model. While we have decided to utilize AutoCAD to develop the working drawings, the Revit model has become a tool for studying massing and 3D dimensional aspects of the home as well as a tool to predict how the design may fuction in it’s passive heating and cooling strategies.

Since the solar study videos exceeded the max file size for the blog, the following images represent snapshots of the sun’s path across the home during both the summer and winter solstices.

During peak summer months, the current model is revealing that the sombrero is working rather effectively until approximately 3:30 pm when solar gain begins to penetrate the envelope. To mitigate this our current thinking is to utiilize sliding insulated panels at the western window wall (I hope that’s still accurate – the sunshade team may be able to elaborate more on that soon).

During peak winter months, the more passive south/southwest portion of the home is seeing solar gain throughout the day as expected. This may result in too much gain and/or glare in the afternoon hours which can again hopefully be mitigated to a degree by the sunshades and/or minimizing the amount of solar glazing. Realizing that it has been a large goal to provide large unobstructed views to the southwest, I may get yelled at for suggesting a reduction in glazing, but this is the beauty of the design/build process and the use of modeling software.