Architecture

Equinox Passive House doubles as solar calendar

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Equinox House's tilting south facade lines up with the noon Sun on the summer solstice (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's tilting south facade lines up with the noon Sun on the summer solstice (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's south-facing pool doubles as a reflector, bouncing light into the house (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Thanks to its sloping green roof, Equinox House keeps a low profile viewed from the north (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Triple glazing has been used throughout (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's south-facing pool doubles as a reflector, bouncing light into the house (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's tilting south facade lines up with the noon Sun on the summer solstice (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Triple glazing has been used throughout (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's tilting south facade lines up with the noon Sun on the summer solstice (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's south-facing pool doubles as a reflector, bouncing light into the house (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Essentially a shrunken skylight, the oculus creates a concentrated sunspot inside the living room on clear days (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
(Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Essentially a shrunken skylight, the oculus creates a concentrated sunspot inside the living room on clear days (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
(Photo: Ignatov Architects)
(Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's south-facing pool doubles as a reflector, bouncing light into the house (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's south-facing pool doubles as a reflector, bouncing light into the house (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
The building is cut into the hill (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Entrance via the roof (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Entrance via the roof (Photo: Ignatov Architects)
Diagram of the layout of Equinox House (Image: Ignatov Architects)
Visualization of Equinox House's interior (Image: Ignatov Architects)
Visualization of Equinox House's interior (Image: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's place in the world (Image: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's relationship to the sun (Image: Ignatov Architects)
Equinox House's oculus explained (Image: Ignatov Architects)
View gallery - 25 images

Modern passive house it may be, but as its name suggests, the showstopper at Equinox House in Bulgaria harkens to ancient times when humans built buildings in veneration to heavenly bodies. A narrow aperture in the roof transforms the house into a solar calendar leading it's designer, Ignatov Architects, to refer to the house as a "celestial instrument."

Essentially a shrunken skylight, the oculus creates a concentrated sunspot inside the living room on clear days. Because the sun describes a higher arc across the sky as winter turns to summer, the position of the sun, and hence the resulting sunspot, at a particular time of day can be used to tell the time of year. At noon each day, a calendar scale built into the living room does precisely this.

The calendar is the basis for the house's depth, so that in the summer months, the noon sunspot hits the floor and in the winter months the wall. At each equinox, when the sun passes directly above the equator and day and night are about equal in duration, the noon sunspot falls on the corner between the two.

The design takes other cues from our relationship to the sun. A prominent sea-facing window is angled downwards, which, combined with the curving green roof gives the house a unique identity. However, the precise angle means that this facade is directly in line with the sun at noon on the summer solstice, when it's at its highest in the sky.

It's both an aesthetic and practical feature which, though not blocking direct sunlight from entering the window, except perhaps for a few minutes per year, does help to minimize solar penetration in the summer months thanks to the Sun effectively "seeing" a small aperture, and to the Fresnel conditions, which describe light's tendency to reflect from a glass surface rather then pass through it when arriving at more obtuse angles – a condition that the angling of the window brings about. It doesn't hurt any that the house's south face is near a declining slope so that there's still plenty of view to see from the window.

The building is cut into the hill and, thanks to the green roof, is apparently rather hard to see when approaching from the north. Another nice touch is the south-facing pool which doubles as a reflector during winter, throwing light onto the house's ceilings in those rather charming patterns you see when light is reflected from water.

The building has been fitted with triple glazing, solar power, rainwater harvesting and waste-water treatment which creates compost and water for irrigation.

It's lovely to see a passive house with more to recommend it than dry performance criteria, as vital as they may be.

Source: Ignatov Architects, via evolo

Modern passive house it may be, but as its name suggests, the showstopper at Equinox House in Bulgaria harkens to ancient times when humans built buildings in veneration to heavenly bodies. A narrow aperture in the roof transforms the house into a solar calendar leading it's designer, Ignatov Architects, to refer to the house as a "celestial instrument."

Essentially a shrunken skylight, the oculus creates a concentrated sunspot inside the living room on clear days. Because the sun describes a higher arc across the sky as winter turns to summer, the position of the sun, and hence the resulting sunspot, at a particular time of day can be used to tell the time of year. At noon each day, a calendar scale built into the living room does precisely this.

The calendar is the basis for the house's depth, so that in the summer months, the noon sunspot hits the floor and in the winter months the wall. At each equinox, when the sun passes directly above the equator and day and night are about equal in duration, the noon sunspot falls on the corner between the two.

The design takes other cues from our relationship to the sun. A prominent sea-facing window is angled downwards, which, combined with the curving green roof gives the house a unique identity. However, the precise angle means that this facade is directly in line with the sun at noon on the summer solstice, when it's at its highest in the sky.

It's both an aesthetic and practical feature which, though not blocking direct sunlight from entering the window, except perhaps for a few minutes per year, does help to minimize solar penetration in the summer months thanks to the Sun effectively "seeing" a small aperture, and to the Fresnel conditions, which describe light's tendency to reflect from a glass surface rather then pass through it when arriving at more obtuse angles – a condition that the angling of the window brings about. It doesn't hurt any that the house's south face is near a declining slope so that there's still plenty of view to see from the window.

The building is cut into the hill and, thanks to the green roof, is apparently rather hard to see when approaching from the north. Another nice touch is the south-facing pool which doubles as a reflector during winter, throwing light onto the house's ceilings in those rather charming patterns you see when light is reflected from water.

The building has been fitted with triple glazing, solar power, rainwater harvesting and waste-water treatment which creates compost and water for irrigation.

It's lovely to see a passive house with more to recommend it than dry performance criteria, as vital as they may be.

Source: Ignatov Architects, via evolo

View gallery - 25 images
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3 comments
Kim Holder
I would have liked information on the passive solar system. It looks like they are using the earth of the hill behind the house as thermal mass, how did they set that up? What is the overall u-value of the house? The huge windows on the upper floor are of little use for passive solar, their angle means little sun enters in the winter relative to their size, and nothing is going to be reflected into them because of the slope in front. Triple glazed or not, they look like big heat losers. I take it they have mild winters there, if not it looks like they are going to need that heat pump shown in the drawings. The oculus is a nice detail, but of no importance. Why didn't you talk about the passive heating?
Carlos Grados
This home has many great features. I especially like the solar positioning and the clean lines.
Prodan Nedev
Looks cool, except I don't know if anyone would actually live there in the winter. People go to the sea coast for about 3-4 months of the year. I am happy this is happening in countries like Bulgaria.