IMPORTANCE OF

ORIENTATION IN BUILDING
PLANNING

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 WELCOME

• This is a presentation for the E4-E5 Architect Technical

Module for the Topic: IMPORTANCE OF ORIENTATION IN
BUILDING PLANNING.
• Eligibility: Those who have got the Up-gradation to from E4
to E5
• This presentation is last updated on 31-08-2012.
• You can also visit the Digital library of BSNL to see this
topic.
 AGENDA
Introduction
Importance of sun :

Using the sun to our Advantage when you orientate

your building
The Ideal House Orientation
Solar orientation is different to magnetic orientation

© For internal
circulation of
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• Introduction
• Orientation of the building is generally used to refer to solar
orientation which is the planning of building with respect to
solar access. Although any building will have different
orientations for its different sides, the orientation can refer to a
particular room, or to the most important facade of the
building.

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• The building orientation can have an impact on heating,
lighting and cooling costs. By maximizing southern exposure,
for example, one can take optimal advantage of the sun for
daylight and passive solar heating. Minimizing western
exposures will result in lower cooling costs, where it's most
difficult to provide shade from the sun.

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 Orientation:

•Designing According To Orientation Of Sun

Through The Day

•The Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, no

matter where you are in the world.

•The Sun is higher in the Summer sky and lower in

the Winter sky.

•So what does this have to do with correct building

orientation?
 IMPORTANCE O SUN :

From time immemorial, the Sun has been considered the

‘Giver of Life’ because without the Sun, there can be no
life on Earth. The importance of the Sun has been
explained here:
•Sun illuminates the world and is the reason we can see.

•The seven constituent colours of the Sunlight; VIBGYOR,

enable us too see everything in colour. In addition these colours
are very useful in treating several diseases.

•The Sun’s UV rays help in the synthesis of Vitamin D, a very

essential nutrient/hormone in our bodies and they also destroy
germs and bacteria.
•The Sun uplifts our spirits and improves our overall
health. In fact in scandinavian countries, in the winter
months when the hours of sunlight are considerably
reduced, a majority of people suffer from a
depressive illness called SAD (Seasonal Affective
Disorder).
•Therefore it is important that all humans expose
themselves to the Sun.
•However, overexposure is not good as the intense
UV rays of the Sun can cause skin cancers and the
Infra-red heat rays can cause sunburn.

•It is best to expose to diffused and indirect sunlight

within the house and to direct sunlight only in the
early mornings, when the intensity of the UV rays is
less.
 Solar
Orientation of building gain
received
true south 100 %
22.5° away from south, either south-south-east
92%
or south-south-west
45° away from south, either south-east or
70%
south-west
67.5° away from south, either east-south-east or
36%
west-south-west
Using the sun to our Advantage when you orientate your building
•The fact the sun is lower in the sky in Winter than in Summer
allows us to plan and construct buildings that capture that free
heat in Winter and reject the heat in Summer.
• The orientation of the whole building plays an important part
in ensuring such a 'passive' process works. See the diagram
below Ideal house orientation
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 The Ideal House Orientation

•The ideal house orientation is that the main long

axis of the building runs East-West, i.e the ridge
line.
•You can move this by as much as 20 degrees
without ill effect, but the most glass on the
building must be facing towards the Sun.
•When deciding the building orientation also take
into account the location of landscape features on
your plot , i.e. trees and walls, etc which will
impact on how you harness the Sun.
•Ideally you do not want them blocking the sun light
as the sun tracks across the sky.
Solar orientation is different to magnetic orientation
It is very important that you remember to orientate your
house with respect to the Sun and not to magnetic North
(or South), see the diagram below.
• The most frequently used rooms during the
day are oriented in the East and the North
whereas the rooms that are used mostly at night
are restricted to the South and the West, which
are hotter directions.
• More doors and windows are placed in the
East to allow the Sun's UV rays to penetrate into
the house in the mornings.
Trees and tall shrubs are planted in the South and West
of
• the site to protect the inmates from the afternoon heat
and to provide them with oxygen.
Tall trees and plants are avoided in the North
and East so as to allow an unhindered flow of
useful morning sunlight into the house.
• The open wells and other water sources
are kept in the North-East to enable the morning
UV rays of the sunlight to destroy germs and
bacteria, before using the water.
Kitchens are oriented towards the East to allow the UV
rays to destroy the germs that tend to multiply in the
presence of moisture and food.

For designing of buildings in such a way that all rooms

get maximum benefit of the Sunlight by default and
irrespective of whether the occupants desire it or not.
Thus the East direction (for the useful, early morning
sunlight) and the North direction (from where there is
constant sunlight through most of the year in India, since
it is in the northern hemisphere)
WHAT DOES ‘SITE ORIENTATION’ MEAN?
•Site Orientation means the position of the Site
with respect to the Cardinal directions (or the
points of the Compass).
•The Site’s orientation is identified by the
direction that the front of the Site faces.
•When you stand in the Site and face the road, the
direction you face is said to be the Site’s
orientation.
•So, a Site with a road in the North, is called a
North facing Site.
 Living Area placement

•Also of importance is that the rooms most used

must be on the side of the house orientated
towards the Sun, i.e. the kitchen, lounge, etc.
• Also put the least used rooms on the side of the
house in shade, i.e. garage, laundry; these will
also act as additional thermal mass, if properly
insulated
•Since you live in your home through Summer
and Winter, you should design it for the entire
year.
•It is important to be comfortable all year long
and not just for a single season.
•Sometimes, solar homes are built with large
areas of upward, tilted, south-facing glass,
designed to catch every bit of sun, Winter or
Summer.
•While tilted glass does maximize heat gain
during the winter months, it also maximizes that
same heat gain during the summer.

• If you understand that the rays of Sun's high

Summer arc will bounce off vertical, south-
facing glass and reduce heat gain, you can let
nature do the work for you in a passively
designed home.

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•Although do remember glass tilted away from
the vertical has much worse insulation qualities as
it improves its ability to interact with more new
'airspace' at once (think about the cooling effect
and air dropping, being horizontal allows the
glass to cool its whole area of new air at once;
rather when vertical interacting with a stack of
cool to hot air in a room.
• Being horizontal reduces insulation qualities by
about 50%. This is not silly science, its a known
effect, ask anyone who installs skylights for a
living.. or check out our online R-Value tool).
•Therefore you will have to improve the insulation
qualities of the glass to offset this effect in Winter.

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How big should the windows be?
•This all comes down to three things: How 'strong' the
sun comes into the room, which side of the house the
window is on and the floor covering..
For North facing windows:
•If the solar access is good (i.e. nothing blocking the sun
as it tracks across the sky) and the floors are concrete
slab (or slab with tiles on them):
•The area of the North facing windows should be large;
somewhere between 10-15% of the building's total
floor; and
•The area of the North facing windows in each
individual room can be up to 25% of the room's floor
area.
For South facing windows:
Keep the South facing windows small:
Total window area should be less than 5% of the total
floor area.
Windows in individual rooms less than 15% of the
room's floor area.
For East facing windows:
Less than 5% of the total floor area and 15% of the floor
area of each room.
For West facing windows:
Less than 3% of the total floor area and less than 10% of
the floor area of each room.
 Cross Ventilation:

Cross ventilation is obtained by having windows in

both sides of the room, causing airflow across the
space.
Positive pressure on the windward and/or a vacuum
on the left side of the building cause air movement
across the room(s) from the windward to the left
side, provided the windows on both sides of the
room are open.
Designing for cross ventilation in buildings allows
for passive cooling and reduces the reliance on air-
conditioning.

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The cross ventilation principle, like all Natural Ventilation
principles, is based on the requirement of ensuring a fresh
and comfortable indoor climate.

Requirements for air motion in the early summer and late

post-monsoon periods are usually small. These can be easily
met by providing adequate cross ventilation through rooms.

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When a building is cross ventilated during the day, the
temperature of the indoor air and surfaces closely follow
the ambient temperature. Therefore ventilation in daytime
should be considered only when indoor comfort can be
experienced at the outdoor air temperature (with
acceptable indoor speed).
The indoor wind speed varies due to factors such as the
area and location of windows in the room, direction of
incident wind, weather shades such as louvers, chhajjas,
verandahs, etc., and the type of interconnection between
different rooms of a building.

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For example, the available wind velocity in a room
with a single window on the windward side is about
10% of the outdoor velocity, at points up to a distance
of one-sixth of room width from the window.

Beyond this, the velocity decreases rapidly and hardly

any air movement is produced in the leeward end
(sheltered from the wind or towards which the wind is
blowing) of the room.

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•Therefore, it is better to provide two windows on
adjacent or opposite walls to improve ventilation.

•The window area and the direction of wind affect

the performance of cross ventilation.

• For example, for windows that are 20 percent of

floor area, the average indoor wind velocity is about
25 percent of outdoor velocity i.e. with minimal
energy consumption and at low cost.

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 Building orientation for Energy saving:
• Maximizing north and south façade exposure for daylight
harvesting and to reduce lighting/electrical loads
• Using southern exposure for solar heat gain to reduce heating
loads in the winter season
• Using shading strategies to reduce cooling loads caused by solar
gain on south façades
• • Turning long façades toward the direction of prevailing
breeze to enhance the cooling effect of natural ventilation

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• Turning long façades in the direction parallel to slopes to take
advantage of cool updrafts to enhance natural ventilation
• Shielding windows and openings from the direction of harsh
winter winds and storms to reduce heating loads
• Orienting the most populated building spaces toward north and
south exposures to maximize day lighting and natural
ventilation benefit

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• Determining building occupant usage patterns for
• public
• commercial
• institutional, or residential buildings, and how occupants will
be affected by the building orientation, by time of day, on
different exposures.

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Important Considerations for Architectural Design
••

•The Architect must consider and prioritize all factors and site
conditions affecting building orientation.

•For example, a building might have to take need of multiple

orientation factors depending on functional requirements: designing
for cooling load or heating load
.
•To take advantage of north–south day lighting, the building may be
oriented along an east–west axis. But this may be counter to street
lines and other site considerations
.

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•Orientation of the building entrance may have to
respect street access, activity zones, and local urban
design guidelines
• For most regions, optimum façade orientation is
typically south. South-facing glass is relatively easy to
shade with an overhang during the summer to minimize
solar heat gain.
• Light shelves also can work well with the higher sun
in the southern exposure. North-facing glass receives
good daylight.

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• East and west window orientations and
horizontal orientation (skylights) all result in more
undesired heat gain in the summer than winter.
East and west sun glare is also more

difficult to control for occupant comfort

because of low sun angles in early morning and
late afternoon.

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A good building design need to take into
consideration all the above factors for providing
good ventilation, enough natural lighting &
effective energy conservation strategy and at the
same time provide comfort to the user.
Wind will affect tall buildings more than low
structures

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. Design for wind direction —admitting favorable
breeze and shielding from storms and cold weather
winds.
Wind information is often available from airports,
libraries, and/or county agricultural extension offices.
In cold climates, locate pedestrian paths and parking
lots on south and east sides of buildings to enable
snow melting, but in southern climates locate these on
the less sunny east or north sides of the building.

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• • In temperate and northern climates, locate deciduous trees for
south-side shading in the summer season; in the winter season,
the dropped leaves will permit desired solar gain. In urban
settings, orientation may be strongly determined by local
regulation, view restrictions, and urban design regulations. Be
aware of unique local and site-specific conditions, such as lake
or coastal exposures, effect of mountainous conditions etc.

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• • To minimize heat losses and gains through the surface
of a building, a compact shape is desirable. This
characteristic is mathematically described as the
“surface-to-volume” ratio of the building.

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• The most compact orthogonal building would be a cube. This
configuration, however, may place a large portion of the floor area far from
perimeter day lighting. Contrary to the cube, a building massing that
optimizes day lighting and ventilation would be elongated along its east–
west axis so that more of the building area is closer to the perimeter.
Although this may appear to compromise the thermal performance of the
building, the electrical load and cooling load savings achieved by a well-
designed day lighting system will more than compensate for the increased
surface losses.

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Conclusion on building orientation
•Correct building orientation is critical to
reducing your energy consumption and
creating a living space that is naturally
comfortable to live in.
• Also by reducing your energy consumption
you are doing a lot to help the environment
and live a more sustainable lifestyle.
•It something that every building should really
take into account and utilize.
Thank You

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