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🪟 Kinetic Facade Explorer
A motorized horizontal louvre, tracking the sun. Change the date, time, latitude, and the wall's compass orientation, and watch the louvre tilt to exactly graze-block direct sun — its target is the vertical shadow angle (profile angle), the same geometry architects use to size fixed overhangs, just computed live instead of fixed at design time.
Sun
Wall
Live Result
Sun altitude—
Sun–wall azimuth difference γ—
Louvre tracking tilt (VSA)—
Powered by the exact vertical-shadow-angle sun-control
formula (
engine/kinetic-facade.js) using the same Cooper (1969)
solar-position formula already verified in the Sun Path & Shadow Explorer —
independently re-derived here a second way, by 3D vector projection of the sun
direction onto the wall-normal vertical plane, and cross-checked against the
closed-form atan(tanα/cosγ) formula (exact match, see engine tests).Method
Solar positionCooper (1969) declination + standard altitude/azimuth equations.
Vertical Shadow Angletan(VSA) = tan(altitude)/cos(γ), γ = sun azimuth − wall azimuth — standard architectural sun-control geometry.
Scope: single horizontal louvre plane, direct-beam geometry only (no diffuse sky component, no louvre spacing/width sizing, no glare/view trade-off — those are separate design decisions this tool does not make for you). When the sun is behind the wall or below the horizon, the louvre has nothing to track and rests open.