Computers help architects harness sun

With the help of 21st-century technology, architects are harnessing that oldest of Earth's resources - sunlight - as never before.

Builders have been manipulating it for centuries, says Dr. Wayne Place, architecture professor and head of the daylighting lab at N.C. State's College of Design. Consider the Gothic cathedrals, he says. "Basically, they were all about two things, structure and light."

The difference today is that, with computers and other design tools, architects and daylighting consultants can make maximum use of the sun's benefits while blotting out its heat and glare.

"When the sun gets down low on the horizon, it's like a headlight shining through your window," says architect Steven Sweat of Neighboring Concepts in Charlotte. And that, says Dr. Dale Brentrup, professor and head of the daylighting lab at UNC Charlotte's College of Architecture, can send air conditioning bills through the roof.

During the gas crises of the 1970s, energy bills and uneasiness about dependence on foreign energy sources jump-started the current embrace of the Earth's oldest resource.

Soon, other reasons for including as much daylight as possible in new buildings emerged. It's a nonpolluting energy source, and the U.S. Green Building Council started giving LEED points for it.

Studies in selected elementary schools in Washington State, Colorado and California and in a large retail chain showed that both children's grades and retail sales went up in the presence of ample daylight.

N.C.'s best examples

Showcase buildings in North Carolina have bought into the philosophy, using everything from exterior glass walls individually tailored to the amount of sunlight (University of North Carolina at Charlotte's new $50.4 million Center City building in Charlotte) to 11-foot-2 ceilings with super-tall windows (the Wildlife Resources Commission's 2005 LEED Gold-rated headquarters on Raleigh's Centennial Campus).

Gantt Huberman Architects of Charlotte, partnering with Kieran Timberlake Architects of Philadelphia, divided the 12-story UNCC building into multistory blocks cantilevered above each other. They give both shade and a distinctive appearance that the university likens to "a stack of books."

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Computers help architects harness sun