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Sun-path model as a simple helping tool for architecture students in

understanding saving energy building design
To cite this article: L H Sari et al 2021 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 1087 012017

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

Sun-path model as a simple helping tool for architecture

students in understanding saving energy building design

L H Sari*, E N Rauzi, Muslimsyah, M Mahmud

Architecture and Planning Department, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Darussalam, Banda
Aceh, Indonesia

*E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Understanding the sun-path in designing an energy-saving building is essential. Saving

energy is approached by daylight provision, which needs access for lighting the room during the
day. In some latitudes, the building also needs the thermal mass to warm up the building during
the cold time, requiring the sun's heat radiation. The sun path on the regions creates various ways
to design buildings. There is multiple architecture software embedding the sun-path feature.
However, the software is not easily installed for free, and some other constraints become the
challenges for students to learn it. Therefore, this article figures out the project-based learning in
utilizing sun path in 3D models for architecture students. The methods comprise the small project
designing sun path in 3D models in various latitudes supported by Andrew sun-path software.
This study aims to understand the position of the sun throughout the year, which in building
design is useful for saving energy in ventilation and lighting applies. The result is the students'
knowledge achievement for understanding the sun position and the site and building analysis
toward the sun for obtaining the saving energy building design.

1. Introduction
Sun-path is the apparent significant seasonal-and-hourly positional changes of the sun (and length of
daylight) as the Earth rotates and orbits around the sun [1]. Understanding the sun path is essential in
protecting the environment and saving energy through passive building design. It is closely linked to
the actions identified by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, i.e., to increase and
train workforce capacity and to evolve energy-efficient designs and technologies that use passive and
active approaches [2]. Sun path is adopted in solar design that architects use at an Early Design Phase
(EDP). According to Pfitzner et al. [3], EDP included a cost-benefit analysis of solar solutions that
include future building life-cycle considerations. It is about 80% of design decisions affecting a
building's energy performance at the early design stage. Therefore, designing buildings with an initial
approach on sun path is essential. It is about 40% of the energy produced worldwide consumed by
buildings, equal to 2500 Mtoe "million-ton oil equivalents" per one year [4]. In architecture, the solar
design has been adopted in some software to predict energy use in the building. Nowadays, the 3D solar
machine has also been developed, which can give a good insight for predicting the daylight entering the
building at any particular time. However, technology runs sometimes much faster than what we have
prepared. Sometimes the lack of ability to run the technology or the availability to have the technology
become the problem.
In this study, we conduct project-based learning (PjBL) on understanding the sun path related to
saving energy building design. The project developed a simple 3D model of sun path in maquette form,
designed in some latitudes. The 3D design is proposed to make the students easier to understand the
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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

sun's way of illuminating the room. This study also creates knowledge for developing an understanding
of the sun position and the site and building analysis toward the sun for obtaining the saving energy
building design. The sun-path also develops the students' insight and creativity in designing apertures
for daylight access or, conversely, avoiding excessive sun heat during summer or hot climate by
providing shadings or building masks. Project-Based Learning (PjBL) is one of the learning models
appropriate for learning with the specific product as an output, such as creating learning media. This
model is suitable for students from the elementary school level to the university level [5, 6]. PjBL
accommodates students to understand the concept and prior knowledge to obtain the skils by creating
the project [7].

1.1 Sun path and solar design

Sun path related to buildings has been previously well-known studied by Szokolay [8], who worked with
the northern hemisphere and Nobert Lechner [9] on the southern hemisphere. The use of a sun-path
diagram is that the solar azimuth and the altitude can be read, and therefore the position can be precisely
determined. By identifying the solar-windows of a particular location, one can design the building such
that there is the maximum utility of the solar energy by placing thermal mass required for indirect heat
gain in the right orientation. The building meets the visual and thermal comfort level by tracing down
the surface area illuminated to apertures' location. Shading devices also can be designed similarly [10].
In understanding the sun-path, some diagrams would identify the sun's positions. The most popular
ones are polar and cartesian sun path diagrams. Polar sun path diagrams are designed following the scale
of altitude circles. Polar sun path has azimuthal, altitude, date and month, and hour lines [10]. Azimuthal
lines are angles running around the edge of the diagram in 15° increments. A point's azimuth from the
reference position is measured in a clockwise direction from True North on the horizontal plane. True
North on the stereographic diagram is the positive Y-axis (straight up) and is marked with an N. While
altitude lines are represented as concentric circular dotted lines that run from the center of the diagram
out, in 10° increments from 90° to 0°. A point's altitude from the reference position is measured from
the horizontal plane up. Date and month lines represent the sun's path through the sky on one particular
day of the year. They start on the eastern side of the graph and run to the western side. There are twelve
of these lines shown for the 1st day of each month. The first six months are shown as solid lines (Jan-
Jun), while the last six months are shown as dotted (Jul-Dec) to allow a clear distinction even though
the sun's path is cyclical. Hour Lines represent the sun's position at a specific hour of the day, throughout
the year [10] (see Figure 1).

1.2 Sun path projections

The sun path projections are classified into three types: spherical, equidistant, and stereographic [11], as
shown in Figure.
• Spherical (Orthographic) :
In this method, the radial distance from the center is the cosine of the altitude angle. This sun-
path diagram is utilized in making the sun-path 3D model.
• Equidistant
In this graphic, the radial distance is simply a linear factor of the altitude angle. Thus the relative
change in radius between all angles is the same.
• Stereographic.
This graphic is a more complicated projection in which azimuth lines are first projected back to a
reference point located a distance of 1 radius beneath the circle center. The point where each of
these lines intersects the zero axis gives the radial distance.

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

Figure 1. Polar sun path [11].

2. Method
This study is a descriptive study based on the observation of the sun-path workshop. The study aims at
expressing the implementation of project-based learning (PjBL) based on the sun-path models designed.
The study involved 24 architecture students of Universitas Syiah Kuala from Architectural Science class.
Those students are divided into four groups, which refer to 4 zones of latitude range based on sun
climate, as shown by Figure 2. Those ranges are tropical zone (23,5°N-23,5°S); Subtropic zone (23,5°N-
40°N and 23,5°S-35°S); Tempered zone (40°N- 60,5°N and 35°S-66,5°S); and cold zone (60,5°N- 90°N
and 66,5°S-90°S). Each group performs four sun-path models based on the latitude zones. This grouping
zones will give an understanding of the participants where the sun path runs on each latitude zones.
In this study, the PjBL procedure comprises:
a. Introductory about the sun path to the students. In this case
b. The preparation for designing sun path 3D models
c. The making process of sun path models
d. Examining the result
e. Evaluation

Figure 2. Climate zones [12].

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

3. Results and discussion

This study applied the project in March 2020 for about three times of meetings. In the first meeting as
the 1st procedure, we introduced the students about the sun path and its eligibility to save energy building
design. In this time, as previously mentioned, we divided the students into four groups of latitudes. In
week two, we performed the 2nd procedure that the students brought all stuff for designing the sun path
models. The steps of developing sun path models adopt the directions from a book Heating, Cooling,
and Lighting for constructing a sun-path model [9]. We asked the students to prepare the board as a base
(65mm thick), and three pipe cleaners, or two chenille pieces soft wire, such as copper or aluminum.
Procedure 3, namely the making process, was conducted on three steps. The first step was to copy or
draw the orthographic projection closest to the latitude of interest and glue it on a piece of foam board
of the same size (see Figure 3).
The size of the model is 30cm in diameter. In modeling the 3D sun-path model, we use orthographic
to identify the sun path and locate the wire on the model. The orthographic sun path is similar to the
spherical sun path, which shows how points of the hemisphere (shown at 150 altitude increments) would
be projected onto the horizon plane, giving the positions of the corresponding altitude circles on the
horizon plane [8] (see Figure 4).
Step 2 requires students to cut a deep slit from A to B on the projections' north-south line. Then they
support quadrant on a piece of reasonably thick transparent plastic film Trace the support quadrant on
the part of fairly thick transparent plastic film (see Figure 5).

Figure 3. The students drawing the Orthograpic sun Figure 4. Orthographic projection
path. Source [8]

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

Figure 5. The Installation of the support quadrant for defining the annual sun path.

The support quadrant loads the sun path annual shiftings i.e. mid-summer, equinox, and mid-winter
(see Figure 6). On equinox days the sun appears to rise at due east and set at due west, (at exactly 6:00
and 18:00 h respectively) and at noon it reaches an altitude of ALT = 90 - |LAT|, i.e. a position when
the zenith angle is the same as the latitude (ZEN = |LAT|). Here LAT is taken as its absolute value. At
mid-summer noon the sun would be 23.45° higher (ZEN = LAT - 23.45° or ALT = 90° - LAT +
23.45°). At mid-winter 23.45° lower: ZEN = LAT + 23.45° or ALT = 90o - LAT - 23.45o.

Figure 6. The sun path annual shiftings of Bandung.

As an example, Bandung city was identified through its latitude i.e., 6,9175°S (see figure 7). The
students defined the mid-winter, equinox, and mid-summer lines (annual shiftings) based on the latitude.
Mid-winter : 90°- 6,9175°S- 23.45°N (to the north)
: 16,53°N
Euinox : 90° - 6,9175°S (to the north)
: 83,0820N
Mid-summer: 90° - 6,9175°S + 23.45oS (to the south)
: 73,47°S
Step 3, the students insert three wires on the three annual shiftings. They bend the first wire on the
equinox across the support quadrant and add the others end in the sunset hole. Then they repeat this
procedure for the other two sun paths.

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

Figure 7. The installation of the wire on three sun paths.

Jeddah
21°32'32.5
7"N,
39°11'52.6
9"E

Figure 8. Sun path diagram 3D models on various latitudes designed by the students.

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

The sun-path influences the architecture through the daylight access and the shadings. Since the sun
path diagram was made on a small scale, which is about 30 cm in diameter, therefore the building model
should be made in a very tiny size for modeling daylight access and shading. Instead of modeling the
small scale of building maquette, the students are directed to use the free application of sun path, i.e.,
Andrewmarsh sunpath3, for keeping students understand about the further use of sun path in building
design.
As procedure four, which aims at examining the result, the application of Andrewmarsh sunpath3
[13] guided the students to understand how the sun path creates the shadings as shown by Figure 8. As
we divided the groups into four latitude ranges referring to the specified climate zones, we took four
samples representing those latitudes. Figure 8 shows the sun path diagram 3D models on various
latitudes designed by the students combined with the orthographic sun path and the 3D model sun path
software. The 3D model of shadings is setting simultaneously as a solar time on 21 March 2020 at 15.02.
a. Bandung (tropical zone).
Bandung is located at 6,9175°N latitude. It has a warm-humid climate, which is high in Relative
Humidity. The latitude shows the location which is close to the equator. Being close to the equator
will give the not significantly different sun running hours on its path throughout the year. Figure
8 shows that the afternoon shading in Bandung at 15.02 is precisely near the east. Conversely, in
the morning, the shading will go to the west. The equator's position gives the high radiation, which
is straight from the east and the west. Therefore, we recognize that the traditional tropical house
has more apertures, such as windows on the southern and northern side, aiming to achieve sunlight
without excessive heat.
b. Jeddah (subtropic zone).
Jeddah is located at 21,32°N latitude. The city, located in Saudi Arabia, has an arid climate
assigned to extremely hot weather during summer. Due to the arid and desert environment, the
shading against the sun is essential for creating a thermally comfortable microclimate. The sun
path performs the shortest day that occurs in December and January. During these months, the
shading will depend more on the northern side. The longest day is in September, which has the
shading just close to the east and the west.
c. Wellington (tempered zone)
Wellington is located at 41, 2865°S. The position on the southern atmosphere gives access to the
sunlight on the northern side. The region has the summer and most extended daytime in January
and December, which contrasts with the north atmosphere. Therefore, the shading works more on
the southern side (south-west, south, south-east) (see Figure 8). This recommends creating more
apertures on the north side of the buildings for giving optimal daylight.
d. Nuuk (cold zone)
Nuuk is located at 64,18°N. This region has a more cold time throughout the year. Due to the
position on the northern side, Nuuk sees the sun path on the southern side. Therefore, the buildings
are built with more openings on the south of sides to get the daylight. The sun only appears best
in June and July, while in January and December, no daylight is performed.
Here the students can understand that the place in the northern atmosphere will see the sun at the
southern atmosphere and vice versa. The shading positions will figure out where the buildings' openings
or apertures should be located for obtaining daylight. The students also could understand why the
buildings in the northern part, which have latitude more than 40°N tending to have more cold times,
should orient the large aperture to the south. The orientation will give plenty of daylight and create a
passive heating design. Directing building opening to the north will cause a lack of daylight and invite
freezing wind from the north pole. The latitude toward the south pole vice versa should orient the
building apertures toward the north. The objective is to avoid the cold breeze from the south and gain
precious daylight from the north.
In comparison, the buildings located in the sub-tropic zone (LAT: 23,5-40°S/N) are built typically
with small openings, compact, and dense with other buildings. Small apertures aim to avoid the
excessive solar radiation and gain more shades by the dense buildings nearby. Tropic zone ranges in

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10th AIC 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1087 (2021) 012017 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1087/1/012017

latitude 0-23,45° S/ N suffers direct solar radiation from west to east on the equator. Tropics also have
an ample amount of rains annually and high relative humidity. Therefore the buildings are recommended
to have large openings toward north and south for gaining undirected sun radiation and air circulation
for reducing the relative humidity.

4. Conclusion
The article presents the study on the sun-path diagram related to building design. It is developed on
Project-Based Learning, i.e., a workshop involving Architecture students of Universitas Syiah Kuala.
The workshop taught the students that the sun path on various latitudes would create different daylight
access and shadings. The workshop guided the students to create a 3D model of sun path diagram. The
model also gives insight the closer the latitude toward the north or the south pole, the further the equator's
zones. The northern latitudes should orient the opening to the south and vice versa, aiming to deliver
more access to daylight. In building design, it is useful for saving energy in receiving the light throughout
the day. The sun path's 3D model will create a more understanding of the sun path and its relationship
with building design. This learning method is straightforward to be made and learn compared with the
paid software embedding the sun-path application. The software usually takes time to learn and run. The
cost of registering and installing the program is also high. Therefore, the 3D model of sun-path would
be a helpful tool for studying and understanding the sun-path in architecture.

5. Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express sincere thanks to Universitas Syiah Kuala for the funding support
through ‘Hibah Lektor.’ Our gratitude also goes to the Architecture students involved in the workshop.

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