GATE Climatology and Environmentally Responsive Design: Solar architecture – Previous Year Questions

6 GATE previous year questions on Solar architecture (Climatology and Environmentally Responsive Design, Architecture and Planning) with answers and explanations, from every paper.

1. GATE 2021 AR Q55 (2 marks, Numerical answer) – A wall has external surface conductance 20 W/m²/°C, solar absorptance 0.66 and U-value 1.2 W/m²/°C. Find its solar-gain factor, to two decimals.
2. GATE 2022 AR — Planning Q11 (1 mark, Multiple choice) – What do the concentric circles in a sun-path diagram represent?
3. GATE 2022 AR — Architecture Q11 (1 mark, Multiple choice) – What do the concentric circles in a sun-path diagram represent?
4. GATE 2025 AR — Architecture Q56 (1 mark, Numerical answer) – The Sun has altitude 40° and north azimuth 130°. Find solar zenith angle in degrees.
5. GATE 2026 AR — Planning Q29 (2 marks, Multiple choice) – Match cities P New Delhi, Q Singapore, R Sydney and S Helsinki with numbered sun-path diagrams 1–5 shown.
6. GATE 2026 AR — Architecture Q29 (2 marks, Multiple choice) – Match cities P New Delhi, Q Singapore, R Sydney and S Helsinki with numbered sun-path diagrams 1–5 shown.