ES. 1_LAB. 6_SOLAR ANALYSIS_Via Vico Consorti corner Via Publio Morbiducci, Rome_Alimo Tatti

PROCESS:

To make a solar analysis on Vasari you have to follow these easy steps:

1. First of all open a New Project on Vasari and make sure you have suitable units by clicking on "Manage", "Project Units" and put the ones that you know better. (pic 1)

2. Find your location by clicking on the address on your right, then "Set Location", submit your address, zoom on the area you need and then click on "import Image" on the bottom of your screen, it will show you the area, if it fits your needings the click again on import and you'll have your image on your project. (pic 2)

3. Now you have your image you can trace the shapes of your buildings by clicking on "Model", "Creat Mass" and selecting the shape line (i suggest you to do this operation with the Top sight, as it comes easier, and you can get it by clicking TOP on the cube on the right); once you have your lines closed you can extrude your buildings: go back to the Ortho view, click on the area you created with the lines, a blue arrow will appear, click on it and drag it up as much as you want, then click on the numbers that state the height and imput the real height of the building. When you've finished your operations click on "Finish Mass" and you'll have you're building done. (pic 3 and 4)

4. Stat the Solar Analysis by clickin on the little sun in the bottom of your window, click on "Sun Settings" and imput the hour and the day in which you want to analize your location; the click on "Sun Path On" and then on "Shadows On" (the icon on the right of the sun): you'll see it'll show up the sun path and the shadows in that hour in that day. (pic 5)

5. At last to take a picture to compare it to the real picture you made with your camera click on "Manage" and on "Camera", take it to the point where you took your real picture and click; tell it where to look and save the view and you're job is done! Check if the shadows look the same, if they don't you got something wrong, if they do then you've done a greta job, congrats!

ANALYSIS:

The area i have studied is located near the street Cristoforo Colombo, in a new district called Torrino Mezzocammino. The fact that is a new area is important as it implies that there is not a large density of costructions: in fact as the pic 6 shows there are only 4 buildings in a large zone. These buildings are of 2 tipes: villas and higher buildings that don't exceed the 5 floors. To have a complete analysis of the area around my house i've analized all of them.

The two buildings are exposed SW and NE on the long fronts, instead the villas' ones are exposed SE NW. In my analysis I took different pictures of the buildings in different hours, 8.00 a.m. 11.00 a.m. 4.00 p.m., to shows the different shadows created during the day. It shows clearly how the NW front is almost always screened, just at the end of the day (it's still winter, almost spring, so the sun sets at 6.00 p.m.) it receives almost two hours of sunlight, and obviously the SE side is amost never screened, instead NE and SW fronts are touched by the sun light the first one during the morning, the second during the afternoon.

My home (the first villa near the bigger building) is influenced by its orientation as the living area (family, living) and the garden are on the North-Western side, besides the building at its side protects the villa during the hottest hours screening it from the sun, so in the summer it is not too hot. The kitchen is exposed South-East, so in the morning you have the sunlight that enters and warms the house.