American Face Brick Association

“ The irregular hour spaces on the dials would make it appear that the sun moves around the earth in a sort of jerky way. On the contrary, it moves, or rather the earth rotates, at an absolutely uniform rate, but the tilt of the sun’s path to your horizon line gives you at certain points a fore-shortened view by which the sun seems to cover various distances at various stages of its course. ”

“ Thus, in the winter, the north side of your house will get no sun at all. This would hardly be a good place for the kitchen, though it would be well enough in the summer, as the sun would be out of it by 8 o’clock in the morning and not return until 4 o’clock in the afternoon when its rays are shorn of much of their midday strength. You know, of course, that during the changing seasons or the changing hours of the day, the sun’s warmth depends largely on the slant of its rays. In the summer, the north side would [13] be a good place for a shady porch most of the day. ”

“ Remember that for several days on either side of a given position of the sun, there will be no essential change in the direction of its rays that you need practically to consider.
But at the times, other than the solstices, while you can thus get the direction of the rising and setting sun, the sun-dial of our chart won’t exactly apply. What happens is that as the sun moves down or up from the solstice to the equinox, the summer hour spaces grow more uniform, while the winter hours grow somewhat longer. ”

“ The Right Kind of House to Orient Before you have the problem of orienting your home, you have the more important problem of deciding on the kind of home you intend to build. It is one of the most, if not the most, important question you have to settle. ”

“ In a word, it must give you satisfaction in every way, inasmuch as you and your family are going to be in it a long time; or, if circumstances compel you to move, you want the house to make a persuasively attractive appeal to the intending renter or purchaser. ”

“ When once you settle the point of convenient accessibility to your work or place of business, you doubtless think first of the neighborhood in which you and your family are going to live, the kind of people about you, the church, school, and library privileges, and such like questions. ”

“ This permanence of brick construction means a saving on insurance rates, on upkeep, and on depreciation, while the material lends itself to the most beautiful and varied artistic effects. “Strength and beauty,” the essential characteristics of all good building, may be fully met in brick construction. ”

“ In the first place, it is an economic question, for you want to be sure of getting value received for the money you expend. To do so, the house you build must, aside from its satisfactory design, be permanent ”