Just caught myself designing floor plans with zero thought to natural light

I've been sketching custom home layouts for about 3 years and never once considered how the sun moves through the house until a client pointed out their kitchen would be dark all afternoon. They showed me their phone app for sun tracking and I felt like an idiot lol. Does anyone actually map out sun angles before you lay out rooms or do most builders just wing it like me?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo2361mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I've been there... sketched out a whole house layout once with a beautiful big south-facing window right where the TV was supposed to go. Client walked in at 2pm and couldn't see a thing on the screen, glare was insane. I just smiled and nodded like I planned it that way. Now I literally stand in the lot at different times of day with a stupid stick to cast shadows and see where they fall. Makes me feel like a caveman doing science but it works better than my old method of pure guesswork.

taylor3051mo ago

And now you've probably got a whole pocket full of random sticks for different times of day.