How can high-rise architecture better respond to solar access?

Sunpath, and solar access have played a significant role in the design of high-rise buildings for over a hundred years now. As far back as 1916, the ‘New York Zoning Law’ stipulated towers should have set-backs to allow light and air to penetrate onto the streets below, forming the famous ‘wedding-cake’ skyscraper style of the time. Today, a similar idea is used in the City of Sydney, with a solar envelope prescribing building heights, to reduce shadows cast onto some of our most important public spaces.

 

Inspired by this history, the project aims to take this thinking to the next level and craft high-rise urban, spatial and energetic performance informed by the sun. The tower’s mass is generated with computational design tools and algorithmic modelling to create a form that allows sunlight to penetrate onto public spaces at key times of the day. Atria are carved out of its mass, allowing light deep into floor plates, and to penetrate through the tower onto buildings behind. An undulating north-facing façade is formed to optimise energy generation from solar panels, while also shading the office spaces from the high summer sun. In doing so, the tower is estimated to be carbon positive – saving 508 tonnes of CO2 per year more than it needs for operational use.