Los Angeles (demonstration)

The courtyard that never dries

DemonstrationEdit the plan

Exact location

When the reading chair is open for leaving things out

Each month read on its 15th · 2026

Works
Tight
No
Unanswered

Rings run from midnight at the centre to 11 pm at the edge.

The reading chair cannot be read for leaving things out in any month yet.

All year: cannot be answered, because ultraviolet dose has not been recorded here.

The same year as a table

Month	Open	Usable hours	What decides it
January	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
February	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
March	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
April	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
May	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
June	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
July	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
August	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
September	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
October	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
November	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it
December	—	—	Ultraviolet dose closes it

BuildingNot yoursCanopyShadow nowCan see inProposed

Reading at

6:33 PM·September

September 14 · The reading chair

10:00 AM11:53 AM2:42 PM5:11 PM

The same day as a table

The same day hour by hour, in text.
Hour	Sun	Verdict	Confidence	Sun position
12:00 AM	dark	—	—
3:00 AM	dark	—	—
6:00 AM	dark	—	—
7:00 AM	shaded by Boundary hedge	—	—	2° up, bearing 87°
8:00 AM	shaded by Boundary hedge	—	—	12° up, bearing 98°
9:00 AM	shaded by Boundary hedge	—	—	21° up, bearing 110°
10:00 AM	shaded by Boundary hedge	—	—	31° up, bearing 123°
11:00 AM	in sun	—	—	38° up, bearing 139°
12:00 PM	shaded by The cedar	—	—	43° up, bearing 157°
1:00 PM	shaded by The cedar	—	—	46° up, bearing 178°
2:00 PM	shaded by The cedar	—	—	44° up, bearing 199°
3:00 PM	in sun	—	—	39° up, bearing 218°
4:00 PM	in sun	—	—	32° up, bearing 234°
5:00 PM	in sun	—	—	23° up, bearing 248°
6:00 PM	shaded by The garage	—	—	13° up, bearing 260°
7:00 PM	shaded by The garage	—	—	3° up, bearing 271°
9:00 PM	dark	—	—

Reading

For

Furniture, cushions, a rug, a finish. What this place does to it over a year.

Something left out here

The reading chair does not work for leaving things out over a year here, and how long it stays wet is why.

How long it stays wet is12h over— 24h against at most 12h
Repeated wetting with slow drying is what actually destroys outdoor things, far more than rainfall totals.

Confidence low (43%). Treat this as a starting hypothesis, not an answer.

What this answer was built from

Use: Something left out here
Place: The reading chair
Weather: Temperate maritime, mild, grey, damp (scenario shape) (from a published source)
Method: Twelve representative days across the year, read at the month that punishes hardest

Try a change Make a document

How well this place is described

Mapped

Quick
Mapped
Annotated
Measured

Shade, sky view and daily light are computed from real geometry rather than assumed. This is the rung at which the product starts telling you things you did not already know.

It cannot answer who can see in, and it cannot tell you whether the heights it is using are the real ones.

To reach Annotated

Photographs of the actual place: None annotated. A photograph is how a drawn height gets checked against a real one.
Photographs that know where they were taken from: No photograph has a position and a bearing, so what is marked on them cannot become a measurement.
Who can see in: Nobody marked. Privacy is a question about who sees in from where, and the product will not invent one.

What that buys: The privacy question, and a check on the geometry. Most inferred heights are wrong by enough to matter, and a photograph settles it in a minute.

Everything that was checked

Quick A place on the earth: Los Angeles (demonstration), with a time zone, which is what makes an hour an hour.
Quick Somewhere to read: 1 spot marked. A reading is a height at a place, and moving it moves the answer.
Mapped The things in the way: 4 objects drawn. The house counts, and so does the neighbour's.
Mapped What is underfoot: 1 of 1 readings sit on a mapped surface.
Mapped Where the property ends: Drawn, so the product can tell you when the cheapest fix stands on someone else's land.
Annotated Photographs of the actual place: None annotated. A photograph is how a drawn height gets checked against a real one.
Annotated Photographs that know where they were taken from: No photograph has a position and a bearing, so what is marked on them cannot become a measurement.
Annotated Who can see in: Nobody marked. Privacy is a question about who sees in from where, and the product will not invent one.
Measured Heights off a tape: 0 of 4 objects are measured. The remaining 4 are this product's own inference, so no figure here is a survey figure yet.
Measured Something checked against the day: Nothing has been checked against a real afternoon. The model is unopposed, which is not the same as being right.

What to measure next

Ranked by how far the answer moves, not by a checklist

1Who can actually see inSit in the chair
Sit where you actually sit and look around. Mark the one window or path you can see a person from. Until one exists, privacy is a question we are not answering rather than one that is fine.
This is not a refinement. Nothing can answer this question until somebody marks it.
Mark it on the plan
Currently assuming: nobody is overlooking this. Tested across one confirmed observer changes the whole privacy answer.
2What you are looking atSit in the chair
Mark the direction of the view worth keeping. Without it, every screening recommendation is optimising against nothing.
This is not a refinement. Nothing can answer this question until somebody marks it.
Mark it on the plan
Currently assuming: no view is being protected. Tested across one corridor changes what screening is worth doing.

What the place is doing at 6:33pm in September

Temperate maritime, mild, grey, damp (scenario shape).

What it feels like

cool

57.5°F

Felt temperature · 25 on the reporting scale

It feels about 6 degrees cooler than the air, near 57°F.

What is doing it

How much sky is overhead
−6.2°
Air movement
+2.0°

How this was worked out

Air: 63.6°F from Temperate maritime, mild, grey, damp (scenario shape), scenario (from a published source)
Radiant: 43.9°F mean radiant temperature
Method: Six-directional radiation integration, then ASHRAE operative temperature (from a published source)

Direct sun

in shade

0 W/m²

Beam reaching this point · 0 on the reporting scale

The garage is standing in the sun's way.

How this was worked out

Sun: 8deg up, bearing 266deg
Traced: 0% of the beam reaches this point
Shaded by: The garage

Glare

none

out of 100

Nothing bright is in the line of sight at this hour.

How this was worked out

Facing: 200deg

Privacy exposure

Unanswered

No observer has been placed yet. Privacy is a question about who can see in from where, and until one is marked there is nothing to answer.

Wind

light

1.6 mph

Wind at the seat · 8 on the reporting scale

The garage is taking about 46% of the wind off this spot.

What is doing it

The garage
−1.4 mph

How this was worked out

Reference: 9.2 mph at 10 m from Temperate maritime, mild, grey, damp (scenario shape), scenario (from a published source)
At seat height: 3.0 mph before shelter
Shelter: 46% removed by what stands upwind

View

Unanswered

No view worth keeping has been marked, so there is nothing to weigh a screen against yet.

Surface heat

comfortable

65°F

Surface temperature · 7 on the reporting scale

The surface is running about 65°F.

How this was worked out

Surface: Courtyard paving
Method: Absorbed shortwave against air temperature, flattened by air movement (from a published source)

Wetness

normal

1.5 x

Drying time against the open · 29 on the reporting scale

The surface holds water rather than shedding it.

How this was worked out

Drying rate: 0.000 in/hour here
Method: Penman combination equation on the radiation and air actually reaching this spot (from a published source)

Light after dark

daylight

out of 100

Artificial light is not doing anything at this hour.

How this was worked out

Sun: still up

Ask something else about this place

Who can see me?

The sightline, the smallest screen that closes it, and what it costs you in view.

What grows here?

Usable light across a day, not the label on the tag.

I already own this. Where should it go?

The same reasoning backwards: every spot you have marked, ranked for one plant.

What survives here?

What this exposure does to the things you leave out.

Dinner outside tonight?

The forecast, read against this specific seat.

What changes through the year?

The same layout in May, August and October.

What changes after dark?

Light, glare and who can see in once the sun has gone.

Everything on the plan, in text

Thing	Reading	Note
The house	24.6 ft	100 per cent solid.
The garage	10.5 ft	100 per cent solid.
Boundary hedge	11.8 ft	82 per cent solid.
The cedar	36.1 ft	90 per cent solid.