UK practice distinguishes between the requirements for new buildings and the protection of sunlight access for existing buildings. New dwellings, or non-domestic buildings which have a particular requirement for sunlight, are considered reasonably sunlit provided that -
- at least one main window faces within 90 degrees of due south; and - the centre (on the inside face of the window wall) of at least one window to a main living room can receive at least 25 per cent of annual probable sunlight hours, including at least 5 per cent of annual probable sunlight hours in the winter months between 21 September and 21 March. Note the insistence on "probable sunlight hours". This is the long-term average of the total number of hours during a year in which direct sunlight reaches unobstructed ground, when clouds are taken into account. In an existing dwelling, if a living room of an existing dwelling has a main window facing within 90 degrees of due south, and any part of a new development subtends an angle of more than 25 degrees to the horizontal measured from the centre of the window in a vertical section perpendicular to the window, the sunlighting of the existing dwelling may be adversely affected. This will be the case if the centre of the window - receives less than 25 per cent of annual probable sunlight hours, or less than 5 per cent of annual sunlight hours between 21 September and 21 March, and - receives less than 0.8 times the former sunlight hours during either period, and - has a reduction in sunlight received over the whole year greater than 4 per cent of annual probable sunlight hours. Protection is also required for sunlight in existing gardens or play areas. The centre of the space should receive at least 2 hours of sunlight on 21 March. Alternatively at least half the area should receive at least 2 hours of sunlight on 21 March. There is lots more small print, but these are the principal provisions. I hope you will share your eventual conclusions with the sundial mailing list. John Lynes On 3 June 2014 12:09, <ml...@interia.pl> wrote: > Dear Diallists, > > I’m currently preparing a paper on Polish building code regulations in > relation to provision of sunlight in apartments, and would like to include > a chapter on similar regulations in the other countries. > > In general, we have a building code requirement to provide at least 3 > hours of sunlight in at least one room in any type of apartment, between > 7:00 and 17:00 on the days of equinox. In the dense urban areas > (specified in local zoning plans or by administrative decisions when there > is no zoning plan) the requirement can be limited to at least 1,5 hour of > sunlight, between 7:00 and 17:00, for at least one room in multi-room > apartments, while one-room apartments (studio) can have no sunlight. It has > to be noted that within the time range given by the building code (that is > between 7:00-17:00), it is allowed to sum up separate intervals of > sunlight. The original intention of setting this time range was to not take > into consideration the first and last hour of the day, due to low energetic > levels of the sunlight and low angles of incident sunlight. > > The idea of providing sunlight in apartments has a long history of course, > but it was first so explicitly manifested during Congress of Modern > Architecture CIAM in Athens in 1933, where requirement of providing at > least 2-hours of sunlight for every apartment during winter solstice was > included in the conference document - Athens Charter, manifesto of modern > movement in architecture. > > Polish regulations in this subject come from Russia. To my knowledge they > were first introduced in Russia as sanitary regulations in 1963 and in > subsequent decades adopted in other countries of the former Soviet block, > but since the collapse of the communism they have evolved separately and > different ways and now they differ quite significantly – but I don’t know > many details unfortunately. > > If You have ever had contact with similar general building code > legislation requirements in Your countries or local law (zoning plan etc.), > I would be indebted if You could share with me its specific requirements. > > > The goal of the planned paper is to formulate guidelines for optimizing > existing building code in Poland, as it is not fully clear in details and > as a result it poses many interpretation problems to architects as well > dwellers who wish to verify if the apartment was designed and implemented > according to building code regulations. > > Regards, > > Maciek Lose > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > >
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