Sunny & Cold Means Warm Inside

We’ve been fortunate to have had a blast of artic cold and sunny weather here in Seattle — it’s demonstrated to even the most non believer of non believers the relevance of passive solar heating! Our offices, which we lease, have old single pane glass windows that face directly south, with views of Lake Union and the Seattle skyline. When it’s sunny, and especially when the sun in low in the sky in the winter, fall and spring — it is toasty warm inside our offices and we don’t use any other heat! In the summer, when the sun is high, our office stays much cooler as sunlight is not directly coming in our windows. So for our clients, for the architecture of their buildings, we locate them very carefully to take full advantage of the potential of solar design — for heating, for electrical generation, for natural ventilation and cooling. In remodels of urban structures, we actively look for opportunities to design with the climate, such as strategically locating operable windows to take advantage of summer breezes for cross ventilation, incorporate shading devices and plantings, or utilizing geothermal heat pumps. There’s a lot one can do to save energy and live more comfortably too, more in tune with the natural surroundings, and still have lovely spaces and buildings.