A kitchen oriented correctly captures morning light in winter, stays cool in summer afternoon, and delivers consistent work-surface illumination without relying on artificial light until evening. That outcome is the result of asoleamiento analysis applied during design development, not a happy accident of placement.
Asoleamiento: Reading the Sun Before You Design
Asoleamiento is the analysis of sun path, angle, and duration relative to a specific site and orientation. In MÉTODO, we produce an asoleamiento diagram in the first week of any residential project. It shows:
- The sun's altitude angle at the summer solstice (highest arc, shallowest window penetration)
- The sun's altitude angle at the winter solstice (lowest arc, deepest window penetration)
- The hours of direct sun on each facade at each season
- The shadows cast by adjacent structures, trees, or topography
For the kitchen, this diagram answers the critical questions: where does direct sun hit the counter, at what time, and for how long? Where does it create glare? Where does it create warmth that is useful in winter and uncomfortable in summer?
These are design inputs, not aesthetic choices. They determine window placement, counter orientation, and whether a fixed overhang or a movable screen is the right shading strategy.
North, South, East, West: What Each Orientation Delivers
North-facing kitchen (in the Northern Hemisphere): Receives no direct sun. Light is diffuse, consistent, and cool. Zero glare. Ideal for a working kitchen in a warm climate — CDMX, for instance — where heat gain is unwanted and consistent task light is the priority. In a cold climate like Denver, a purely north-facing kitchen loses the winter sun benefit.
South-facing kitchen: Maximum solar gain. In Denver, a south-facing kitchen window with the correct overhang depth is warm in winter and shaded in summer. The overhang does the seasonal work passively. Without the overhang, it overheats in July and glares in March.
East-facing kitchen: Morning sun, often strongly desired. The kitchen is warm and bright from 7am to noon. After noon, the sun is gone and the kitchen goes to diffuse ambient light. For clients who use the kitchen heavily in the morning, east is often the preferred orientation.
West-facing kitchen: Afternoon sun, often problematic. The low western sun in late afternoon creates glare directly into a west-facing counter workspace. In warm climates, it also drives heat gain at the hottest hour of the day. West-facing kitchens need deep overhangs or vertical shading fins, not just a horizontal overhang.
The Overhang Calculation
A fixed horizontal overhang is the most effective passive shading device for a south-facing kitchen window in temperate latitudes. The overhang depth is calculated from the latitude and the window head height.
For Denver (latitude 39.7 degrees North):
- Summer solstice sun altitude at noon: approximately 73 degrees
- Winter solstice sun altitude at noon: approximately 27 degrees
An overhang that projects far enough to block the 73-degree summer sun will permit the 27-degree winter sun to enter under it and warm the counter. The formula is geometric — overhang projection equals window head height minus sill height, divided by the tangent of the summer altitude angle.
This is not a complex calculation. It is a first-week design task. When it is skipped, the kitchen either bakes in summer or misses the winter sun benefit.
Shading and Counter Position Together
La sección como relato — the section as the story of the kitchen — is where light and work surface position are resolved together.
The counter should receive light from the side, not from behind or directly in front. Side lighting eliminates the shadow your hands cast on the work surface. It also eliminates the glare from looking directly into the window while working.
In plan terms: if the primary window faces south, the primary work counter runs perpendicular to that wall — east-west — so the light falls across it rather than into it or away from it.
When the section shows a high-set clerestory window rather than a counter-level window, the light source is above the work plane entirely. This is a useful strategy for hot climates: high glass admits light without admitting low-angle glare or significant solar heat gain.
Shading Devices: Fixed vs. Movable
Fixed overhangs are ideal for south-facing windows where the seasonal sun angle does the work. They require no maintenance and no client action.
Movable shading — retractable screens, operable horizontal louvers, roll blinds — is appropriate for east and west orientations where the low-angle seasonal sun cannot be controlled by a fixed horizontal element alone.
In MÉTODO we prefer fixed shading wherever the geometry allows. Movable parts are maintenance points, and clients do not consistently operate them. A kitchen that only works well when the client remembers to lower a screen has not been designed — it has been deferred.
Próximos pasos
Light quality in your kitchen for the next 30 years is decided in the first few weeks of design. The overhang depth, the window placement, and the counter orientation are not finish decisions — they are structural decisions made when the plan is still a plan.
The sombra antes que la luz. The shading strategy before the glass selection. Conoce el método de MÉTODO to understand how we integrate asoleamiento analysis into kitchen and residential design from the first site visit.