Illuminating: Natural Light in Residential Architecture

✍ Scribed by Michelle Corrodi; Klaus Spechtenhauser; Gerhard Auer

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 232
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Daylight in architecture

The image of open working and living spaces flooded with light has, more than any other, become fixed in our minds as a symbol of modernity and the spirit of the times. While the workplace has always been the focus of ergonomic studies and optimization with respect to a good provision of daylight, large glass surfaces have now become the order of the day for living spaces as well. But does this automatically make for better illumination? Taking this question as its starting point, the publication Illuminating thematizes central aspects of light planning, including the connection between the provision of daylight and architectural design, building orientation, the nature of the facade, the ground plan, comfort, and the proportions and atmosphere of rooms. In the process, general characteristics and fundamental principles as well as subtle facets of an intelligent treatment of daylight are discussed and critically examined within an expanded architecture- and culture-historical context.

• The fundamental principles of using daylight in architecture
• Analysis of current and historical examples
• Suggestions for planning

✦ Table of Contents

Introduction
Darker Living. How Artificial Light Teaches Us to Love Daylight
Well Lighted? On the Status Quo of the Hunger for Light
Irreplaceable Daylight
The Call for Brightness
Habits and Positive Attributions
Artificial Light
The Myth of Light
The Myth of Glass
Overexposures
Modern Living. Light-flooded Houses
Modern = Bright
Hygiene through Light and Housing Reform
Modern Architecture, Modern Living
Equal Heights for Equal People
Floor Plan and Typology: Into the Light
Increasing Density and Lighting: Rows, Blocks, and Towers
In Healthy Light: Balconies, Loggias, Terraces
Continuing to Build with Distinction
Light, Sight, Space. Experiencing Light, Perceiving Space, and Looking Out
Light and Sight
Between Inside and Outside
Looking Out: Information and Contemplation
The Window’s Loss of Importance
The Spatial Box: Discretion in Muted Light
The Framed View
BursBursting the Box: New Spaces of Experience
FlowFlowing Spaces: Visual Boundlessness and Clarifying Brightness
The Form of Windows and the Interior
The Mise-en-Scène of Prospects
Last Stop: Glass House
Rehabilitating Darkness
From the Form to the Shell
New Pleasure in Transparency: “The Un-Private House”
Semitransparent Shells: Veiled Views and the Diffusion of Light
Metamorphoses of the Facade
Reveiling the Unveiled: Protection from Sun and Prying Eyes
Multiple Layers
Shown in a Good Light
Illuminating: Seeing Well and Seeing Comfortable Qualities of Natural Light and Rules of Thumb for Design
Good Light Planning?
The Given Situation and Local Conditions: Designing the Exterior
The Climate Zone
The Building’s Surroundings
The Sun’s Orientation
The Building Volumes and Facades
Quantitative Objectives
Interior Design and Functional Lighting
The Composition of Natural Light
Terms in Lighting Technology
The Distribution of Luminance and Transitions
Rules of Thumb for Interior Design
The Height and Depth of the Room
The Size and Position of Windows
Vertical or Horizontal Openings
Shadows of Other Buildings
Increasing and Optimizing Light
Light from One Side
Light from More than One Side
Qualitative Objectives
Interior Design and Seeing Comfortably
Light for Information and Wayfinding
Directing Light and Shading
Modeling Space
Reducing Contrast
Modulating Diffuse Brightness
Glare Control
Disability Glare from Excessive Luminances
Discomfort Glare from Excessive Luminance Contrast
Silhouette Effect
Solar Control and Directing Sunlight
Single-Skin Facades
Double-Skin and Multiple-Skin Facades
Daylight as Design Medium
Lighting Effects: Beyond Seeing Comfortably. Well-Being, Mood, Experience
The Consequences of Flooding with Light
A Loss of Homeyness?
Physiological and Psychological Comfort
One’s Own Four Walls
Buffer Zones and Transitional Spaces
The Veiled Gaze
The Hiding Place
The Island of Light
The Home as a Place of Memory
Lighting and the Experience of Space
A Play with Lights and a Theater of Materials
Best of: Eleven Masters of Natural Light Landmark Concepts of Light
Le Corbusier: Purifying Light
Richard Neutra: Invigorating Light
Frank Lloyd Wright: Vitalizing Light
Alvar Aalto: Ephemeral Light
Louis I. Kahn: Purist Light
Luis Barragán: Meditative Light
Tadao Ando: Spiritual Light
Jean Nouvel: Illusionistic Light
Toyo Ito: Atmospheric Light
SANAA, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa: Suggestive Light
Steven Holl: Animating Light
Selected Bibliography
Illustration Credits
On the Authors
Acknowledgments