Use of Shadow Analysis in design of residential building on Krańcowa street in Warsaw

Residential building complex on Krańcowa street in Warsaw

In Poland issue of access to sunlight is regulated by buildings "technical conditions". This imposes for architects duty of shadow analysis preparation, which needs to be attached to the application for building permission. Due to the laboriousness of such analysis preparation, architects from APA Wojciechowski were searching for a solution to automate this process. Important was also, to allow making calculations based on the solid model.
 
According to that, shadow analysis can be prepared as a part of a feasibility study. It allows shortening time needed for preparation of next project stages (by avoiding introducing time-consuming amendments). Demand for this kind of software was the reason of joining to beta tests of Shadow Analysis. The project of four buildings housing estate at Krańcowa Street was first opportunity to try the software in practice. 
 
 
The main objective of the project was creating housing estate complex connected with large recreational space, playground, walking paths and a charming pond. According to the assumption, the plot was split into two parts: from the streets planned compact housing development and in quite, inside part - recreational functions. Creating comfortable conditions for living in residential intensively built-quarter needs solid buildings optimization, according to apartments insolation. 
 
The first step of optimization was modeling solid of the designed building in SketchUp. Based on such prepared model, it has been made shadow analysis in Shadow Analysis software. 
Next, according to results of the analysis, architects made modifications of designing building solid and again verified results by using the software. 
 
Actions of model modify and shadow analysis was made several times, in looped form. The whole process of solid optimization doesn't exceed more than few hours. According to the cooperation of architect and computer in designing building form, it was possible to reconcile demand of high building intensity with the comfort of designed apartments.
 
 
Integration of optimization with designing solid building process is an example of a modern organization design process. According to that, it is possible to meet high demands in short time period. Change consists on departure from the standard working scheme (solid conception => projections, sections and elevations of the building  => shadow analysis) in direction of solutions based on using computer calculation power (solid conception => shadow analysis => projections, sections, and elevations of the building). Advantage such work organization is resolving many problems in the start of designing, which clearly improves work over successive stages of the project.