Natural protection from sun

While heat from the sun makes an important contribution to covering the thermal requirement in winter, an essential aspect of protecting against overheating in summer is sensibly arranged shading to guard against high temperatures indoors. The planner's task is therefore to design the shading in such a way that the sun's rays reach through the glazing into the building as far and as long as possible in the cooler half of the year, but are prevented from doing so in the warmer half of the year.

A deciduous tree provides shade with its leaves in summer. In fall it loses them and lets through part of the sun's radiation. This effect can be taken into account if trees are on hand, or in long-term planning. It must be noted, however, that even deciduous trees may provide 15 to 25 percent shade or more with their branches alone.

On left: shade from a deciduous tree in summer; on right: taking advantage of the low sun in winter to warm the interior, as the tree has no leaves then (source: Stefan Prokupek, GrAT)

S-HOUSE – natural shading (source: GrAT)

Construction to the south of the S-HOUSE took the existing trees into account and preserved them. As a result, natural shade from the deciduous trees can be taken advantage of.