Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Porches and other things

[Fred H Olson WB0YQM (fholson]

Shava Nerad shava [at] ns.uoregon.edu
is the author of the message below but due
to a listserv problem it was posted by the COHOUSING-L sysop (Fred).
****************  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS *********************

I'm reading a great book, don't have it in front of me, but it's called 
something like:

        The_Golden_Thread, 2500 years of solar architecture and
                                technology

Or something...

Anyway, they point out that classical period mediterranean cities
were planned on street levels to allow each street to have *only*
south-facing structures.  That porches/porticos were planned on each
structure according to a formula that shaded the interior in the 
summer (when the sun is high) and allowed the low-slanting winter
sun into the interior to heat it in the winter.

This was important enough (charcoal and wood use was heavily regulated
due to deforestation around the cities) that there was a concept of
solar rights in Roman law.  If you shaded a neighbor's porch, you 
could be sued for damages and abatement.

(Abatement...damn...I didn't know that word in that sense before I
started this process...   *lost innocensce* *sigh* ;)

Shava Nerad
Erisian Fields Cohousing of Lane County OR (a glimmer only)
shava [at] ns.uoregon.edu
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~shava/idyll/