Changing the orientation of a building just ninety* degrees can improve safety by reducing the amount of ice falling on pedestrians, cut heating and cooling costs, limit the need for snow-clearing in the winter and lessen how hot an urban neighbourhood feels in the summer.
So says Mojtaba Samimi, an Iranian expert in solar and climactic analysis who has consulted with companies around the world.
Montreal will/should face a sunnier city in the future. A sunnier city means a colder situation in winter and a warmer situation in summer.” **
Samimi says similar results can be obtained by selecting the correct shading for a building, installing reflecting devices in key locations and otherwise taking advantage of the sun’s position in all seasons when designing a project.
Samimi operates the R.M.M. Solarch Studio studio in Iran*** and he’s spent significant time analyzing Montreal’s climate to come up with ways the new building developers can lessen the negative impacts of their projects on existing neighourhoods.
He has attended several public consultations recently to show how his analysis changes the project designs.
His reports recommend changing the orientation of the new school on Nun’s Island, setting up solar reflectors to limit the shading of proposed high-rise buildings south-east of the Bell Centre and considering the sun in all future development projects.
Check out Samimi’s reports at http://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P72/8a4.pdf, http://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P72/8a4a.pdf, and http://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P70/9a20.pdf.
Refer to his website at http://solarchvision.com/.
*An earlier version of this article said 60 degrees, but Samimi suggested I change it to match his recommendations for the Nun’s Island School.
**Samimi suggested that I add his vision for our city after he read my article about seeing his presentations at three different public consultations.
***Samimi’s studio is located in Tehran, Iran.
