Daylight in Architecture

When we see a house for the first time, the interior rooms, first thing we notice or which draw our attention is the light entering the building. So vision is the primary sense through which we experience architecture and light is the medium that allows us to perceive space, form, texture and color.

Light is the soul of architecture design. Light allows us to see, to know where we are and what around us. Beyond exposing things to view and feel, light models those objects to enhance visual and to help us define the physical world. Nothing would be visible without light, light also makes it possible to express and show to the mind's eye things that eludes the physical one. Light helps us redefine the relationships of people with the environment and with themselves. It is divided into natural light and artificial light. Natural light is a gift of nature. We will see how architects use the natural light.

Have you ever tried to move the curtains in the window and see that when they are off the light penetrates more in the room? Have you ever gone to a castle and noticed the cold rooms and dark? To answer these questions we need to know more about LIGHT. So through light we can experience different impressions. It can give different spatial impressions.

There are three types of divisions according to how light enters the building:

1.      The bright open hall

2.      The room with the skylight

3.      The room with light entering from the side

1-The same example as the house of Philip Johnson, is the house of Olnick Spanu located in Garrison, New York, designed by Alberto Campo Baeza which demonstrates best his type of division. This house resembles a rectangle box, with a roof to protect from burning sun and storm. There are some pillars, glass walls which allow the light to enter all over the house. There are no divisions between rooms with walls and only the bathroom is a small rectangle box isolated from the rest of the house. One thing that drew my attention was the positioning of the furniture. They are positioned in such a way that allow the vision of the individuals in every corner of the house. So this means that the designer has used the potentials of the light and the environment. And this has to do with the quality of life.

Some people think that a good light has to do with the quantity. But is this true? Let’s see. Unlike quantity, there’s no device to measure light quality. A photograph has made an experiment with light: he placed a portrait subject in direct sunlight at noon. The overhead light created deep shadows in the eyes, neck, etc. The nose shadow was sharp and distinct. He called the quality of this light “hard”. Moreover, he took the same subject out in the same location at the same time on an overcast day and the transition from the light areas to shadow areas was very gradual with no distinct shadow lines. This light is “soft”. In the architecture language architects use these lights, perpendicular or not, in order to point out some characteristics: A front light is generally considered a poor light. When light falls on a relief at almost a right angle, there will be a minimum of shadow and therefore of plastic effect. If the object is moved from front light to a place where light falls on it from the side it will be possible to find a spot which gives a particularly good impression both of relief and of texture. So to conclude: The important thing is not the amount of light which matters; the important thing is the way the light falls. A “front light" is general a poor light, because it creates:

•      --  Minimum shadow

•       --Minimum plastic effect

•       -- Poor textural effect

 2- The room with the skylight

Imagine a room with walls, no windows and a roof with on opening at the top. This is the antithesis of what I have discussed till now. This is the room with the skylight. I think that this is difficult for the designers to project such kind of rooms, because they have to think how the light will enter in the room and they have to do some experiments and calculations in different phases of the day.

Panthenon in Rome: The most fascinating part of the Pantheon is its giant dome, with its famous hole in the top (The eye of the Pantheon, or oculus). The dome was the largest in the world for 1300 years and until today it remains the largest unsupported dome in the world! The floor receives most of the light and enough is reflected to brighten even the darkest spots so that there are no really black shadows anywhere. An interesting fact states that: A lighting effect can be viewed on April 21 when the midday sun strikes a metal grille above the doorway, saturating the courtyard outside with light. The Romans celebrated April 21 as the founding date of the city, and the impressive sight of their Emperor standing at the entrance of the Pantheon surrounded by light coming from inside the pantheon might have been seen as something that, in effect, raised their emperor to the level of the gods and invited him in to join them.

Another example is The Copenhagen’s city hall which demonstrates the entering of the light from the opening of the roof but in this case the building is not a dome, but a barrel vault.

In today’s life there is no such a concept of skylight as has been used before, because today are seen some modernism tendencies. We can see in Kimpton Hotel Vintage Portland, in some rooms. There the light can enter all over the rooms even though there are no windows.

3- The room with light entering from the side

I think that all of you have seen this kind of room because they are widespread. Maybe your house may have this characteristic. Let’s find out.

The Dutch houses describes this type. If I ask you to design/build/imagine a Dutch house, what will be its characteristics? Here are some characteristics you should keep in mind:

•       -- Deep, tall, narrow gabled buildings,

•       -- Lower floors for dwelling purposes

•       -- Upper for storage of foods

•       -- Light had to come from windows in front

•       -- Front consists of a thing brick wall above and wood and glass below

•       -- Sometimes the upper part was also equipped with shutters

•        This produced a 4-framed window with a shutter to each frame that could be opened and close independently as the light could be regulated at will. This characteristic has pushed architects to explore with the varieties that light offers. To demonstrate this an experiment is made in a school in Copenhagen, which shows how to regulate the light.

After we have described three types how light enters the room, which one is the best one? Firstly, I think that this depends on the owner’s desire. Secondly, in order to get the best distribution on light there is no such a precise rule. For example, I came across the Chinkara house. The interior designer named, Joanna de Goyzueta graced the elegance of the interior. This house is said to be located in a privileged area, surrounded by woods yet close to Guatemala City. Well, this house is presented as dual house as the architects described it, in which it explores the contrast between nature and the man-made elements as well as the primitive and the modern. The light enters from the skylight and it is an example of a bright open hall. You think too much light? I think that more than quantity it has to do with quality. This isn’t the best example because the light entering from the skylight diffuses, making the whole room lightened

This is one of the problems with which modern architects are often faced is to obtain good, even lighting for many different parts of a large room. And they think that the best way to do this is by designing Sawtooth light source. The sawtooth roof, with its glass panels facing away from the equator, blocks the light and heat of direct sun exposure and provides uniform, natural light over a large area. It was particularly useful in design factories and manufacturing buildings.

Sawtooth structures show apertures with vertical or angled glazing installed in a sloped roof plane. Sawtooths are most effective when used in series of three, and were historically used in industrial and manufacturing buildings as the primary light source.

COLOR IN ARCHITECTURE

Color plays an important role in architecture. What if the building would be with the same color, will it have any impression to you? To me, no, because color can affect in various ways to our senses. It can be used to Emphasize the character of the building, to accentuate its form and material or to elucidate its divisions. While architecture influences our lives in more ways than we can think, the use of color with the type of architecture makes a built form way more influential. Usage of color in a building has evolved over the years. From the cities culturally depending on the materials available locally like stones, limestone, etc. have given some cities a natural demarcating color like Jaipur and Jaisalmer in India (he Old City of Jaipur- Red sandstone gives the city its identity, Old City of Jaisalmer-Yellow sandstone gives the city a sense of collective belonging), Chefchaouen in Morocco (the city is painted blue for the apparent theories of either keeping mosquitoes away or as a symbol of freedom from Hitler), etc. 

 From the text I understood that there is a deep connection between the material and color, because we do not experience color independently, but only as one of the several characteristics of a certain material. The control of color in building materials is a new step in architectural design, but since our imagination seems to be very slow to grasp new possibilities, on the whole we use the colors that we are accustomed to see around us. This was pretty obvious in the example of Norway and Sweden’s log-houses, which were painted red as an imitation of manor houses. As I continued, I came across the usage of color as a symbol, for example: in Pekin, bright colors were reserved for palaces, temples and other ritual buildings while the ordinary dwellings were made colorless artificially.

                 Color is used for many purposes: to hide the blemishes  and defects; when you use a single color, or definite color scheme, you can suggest the chief function of the building etc. Color is also connected to the surface because it often happens that when an attractive color seen on the walls of a particular room is copied in another room, it loses its attraction in the new surroundings.

However, as all other architectural elements, color cannot be strictly defined. No directives which is followed closely can guarantee a good architecture.

•        Copenhagen City Hall: technological details, color is used to enhance the materials and underline the building technique

•        Faaborg Museum: instead of emphasizing material and structure, color is used to characterize the rooms instead.

 But I’d like to add something: Even in public places like streets, food courts, etc. colorful street patterns, street art and installations have been admired by the public and noticeably, has pulled a larger crowd out on the streets and have given the reason to festively celebrate the streetscape. Such art practices involving colors help develop the culture and identity of a city. The sudden randomness and elements of surprise are always a welcoming and a warm gesture.

            And as always, I would like to sum up with a quote “Even a room which must be dark needs at least a crack of light to know how dark it is.” “ The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.” “ We are born of light. The seasons are felt through light. We only know the world as it is evoked by light.” (Louis Khan) Colour and light have dramatic effects on the perception of the built environment. Colour and light have also dramatic effects on all the contemporary life experiences. So the contemporary architecture needs to take into consideration the influence of colour and light from the first design phase.