{"id":585307,"date":"2026-04-06T06:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585307\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T06:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:33:09","slug":"architect-creates-app-to-show-which-pub-gardens-are-sunny-using-shadow-simulations-from-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585307\/","title":{"rendered":"Architect Creates App to Show Which Pub Gardens are Sunny \u2013 Using Shadow Simulations From Buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-232421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mo-Dawod-with-his-Sunseekr-map-app-SWNS.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"750\"\/>Mo Dawod with his Sunseekr map app SWNS<\/p>\n<p>In cloudy old England, an architect has created his own phone app that displays which pubs are currently in the sunshine.<\/p>\n<p>Mo Dawod was out in London in April last year when he decided that he wanted an iced coffee in the sunshine, but there was no way to know which cafes would be blanketed in shade.<\/p>\n<p>So, later that night, he created his own mobile map using publicly available data, such as a building\u2019s height and footprint, to create a shadow simulation for pubs, restaurants, and cafes.<\/p>\n<p>What started as a simple \u2018hack\u2019 for himself quickly turned into the number one app in the UK\u2014called Sunseekr\u2014and Mo has since quit his day job in architecture to pursue it full time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI decided to share it with the community to see if anyone was also struggling like me and would be interested,\u201d said the 34-year-old. \u201cPeople went crazy. It went so viral on Reddit that night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was astonished and shocked. After that I decided to make it as an app.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe app went number one in the UK in the lifestyle category four days after it became real. It was so surreal that all this happened from me just wanting to have an iced coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mo, who is originally from Egypt, next looked at how to monetize his invention so he could pay his bills while operating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunseekr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Sunseekr app<\/a>\u2014now with over 250,000 users.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-232427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Sunseekr-app-screen-SWNS.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"1022\"\/>Sunseekr app screen \u2013 SWNS<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, he managed to get a sponsorship from Aperol, who used his map to create their own version showing where people could drink an aperitivo of Aperol Spritz in the sunshine.<\/p>\n<p>With the app becoming less popular in the winter months, the founder decided to use the time to work on leveling-up the experience with new elements.<\/p>\n<p>Venues now have a chance to be more featured, uploading pictures of their venue, mapping the garden, and pushing themselves on the explore page for \u00a3350 a year.<\/p>\n<p>It uses a moon emoji if the location is in the shade, and a sun if it\u2019s not. The app can also notify you when your favorite spot is getting sun beamed, displays closing and opening times, and offers the ability to leave comments and reviews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I built this app it was more of a hack for the problem I had. Now I am trying to take it to the next level. I have rebuilt the whole app for summer 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been for me such a crazy journey. It was so unexpected. I never thought I would be running such a platform. I am so happy that I managed to put this together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>PUB TALES:<br \/>\u2022 <a title=\"Landlord of Real Ted Lasso Pub Says Tourists Now Come From all Over the World\u2013LOOK\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/landlord-of-the-real-ted-lasso-pub-says-tourists-flock\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Landlord of Real Ted Lasso Pub Says Tourists Now Come From all Over the World\u2013LOOK<\/a><br \/>\u2022 <a title=\"Guy on Pub Crawl Dressed as Gandalf Bumps into \u2018Real\u2019 Ian McKellen For Best Birthday Surprise Ever\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/gandalf-costume-man-meets-ian-mckellen-on-birthday\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Guy on Pub Crawl Dressed as Gandalf Bumps into \u2018Real\u2019 Ian McKellen for Best Birthday Photo Ever<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sunseekr was also launched in other countries such as Germany and Spain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe reworked the app from the ground up to map the actual outdoor areas and show people, hour by hour, how much sun you will be having.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-232422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Sunseekr-map-app-SWNS-CROPPED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"686\"\/>Sunseekr \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>The company is now asking the community to help map more pubs because they don\u2019t have the manpower to go and map every single venue in the country.<\/p>\n<p>INSPIRE YOUR FRIENDS TO CREATE \u2013Share The Idea on Social Media\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mo Dawod with his Sunseekr map app SWNS In cloudy old England, an architect has created his own&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1638,357,76,354,355,49,48,1050,23084,356,75,165528,4472,715,61,3585,22064,1133],"class_list":{"0":"post-585307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-apps","9":"tag-architecture","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-ca","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-community","16":"tag-creativity","17":"tag-design","18":"tag-entertainment","19":"tag-invention","20":"tag-london","21":"tag-social","22":"tag-technology","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-urban","25":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}