CONTAINING [LIGHT]
UTSOA | Program: Lighting Analysis
Austin, Texas | Lois Wienthal | Fall 2012
“What is light without shadow? What is architecture without light? Wherever we are searching for light, shadows will follow us,
because we stand between them. Like Orpheus in the underworld we are inextricably connected with both light and shadows.
--Robert Niess
Volume is given its shape through its container, such as a balloon filled with air or a glass full of water. Air or breath is given life only if it has a secondary vessel to reinforce it. Likewise, a spirit can remain alive in this life or the next but is only given true meaning if it occupies a vessel such as a human body or an animal. The same can be said about light. We can see it and feel the warmth of the sun’s rays. But light, both artificial and natural can only be mapped if it is contained within a space and projected onto a planar surface. Natural light itself is invisible unless staring directly at the sun and most of our interaction with light is from reflection off of different surfaces. Elements such as light, air and liquid are given form based on the shape of their container. For example, air is seen if it is contained in a balloon, likewise water is given shape with a glass, and light becomes visible only when we begin to see it reflected within space.
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As part of extending my hypothesis in this project and exploring different ways of representing light, I began to question whether or not light can be seen as a volume. We often see light being mapped literally on a surface, in a two dimensional format, over the course of a day. This may be helpful as to locating certain pictures on a vertical plane based on the movement of sun’s path. However, as light is projected onto a surface or the ground it is actually filling the space with an “imaginary” volume, or void. The sun’s rays become these “imaginary” boundaries of this volume, which is essentially dependent on the angle of the sun, the orientation of the building, the height of the building, its apertures, and latitude. Drawing inspirations from readings such as Monica Wyatt’s Space-Enfolding Breath, The Developed Surface by Robin Evans and House 1993 by Rachel Whiteread, I began investigating the different representations of light. We are so accustomed to seeing shadow as the solid juxtaposed with the natural daylight coming in, the void. Furthermore, seeing light as an actual volume may help with the literal mapping of where certain things, such as an antique, may be placed in a space dependent upon whether or not it can be in the sunlight. Light reinterpreted as a volume becomes more spatial as we often design buildings both in plan and section.
Grand Central Terminal, 1930 by Hal Morey
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[Light | Shade] : [Solid | Void]
Taking the analysis further and looking to Rachel Whiteread’s for inspiration, I decided to cast the volume of light as solid which was represented with Rockite. In contrast, shade, which is often seen as the solid, was cast in wax in order to represent void. Seeing the inverse representation of the two made me realize the amount of light actually filling a space throughout the day. Using software such as Revit, Rhino and DIVA, I determined exactly where actual light and shade were filling a space based on a 1’x1’x1’ volume. The volume was also oriented north, with the space totally open to the sky, set in Austin, Texas on equinox. The rockite becomes a direct representation of where sun light is hitting with in a given space. As the sun rises in the east, barely peaking over the walls, the volume becomes a thin sliver slicing though the space. As the day goes by, the suns angle becomes more violent cutting through the space dramatically. At approximately 12:24 the sun is oriented directly south of the building, as it produces the same shadow lines on the east and west interior walls. From this analysis, a language is developed on how both the light (rockite) and shade (wax) interact volumetrically. The sun’s rays are also literally mapped within the volume based on the interaction between the rockite and the wax. After testing the different lighting conditions over the course of the day, I began to literally map light being projected onto a two dimensional surface, which is what is most apparent to an everyday user. A grid was superimposed on the sides of my light box. From there, I could understand the true angle of the sun, in relationship to the height of the wall. Based on the sun’s path over the course of the day, I could begin to derive the interior elements within a space. For example, if my birthday was on June 21st at approximately 11 am, I could literally hang my picture on the wall where I know the sun’s rays would directly be hitting it, in celebration of my birthday.
Light Cubes
Qualitative vs Quantitative
Often times we design a space with natural daylighting in mind. As a student in the school of architecture, I feel we are always surrounded by the topics of light and its ephemeral qualities in order to produce a kind of phenomenological architecture (qualitative). However, I believe we simply do not understand the technicalities and mechanics of light (quantitative). Brightness and lux are used interchangeably, though they are not the same. Lux is defined by the total luminous flux (lumens) incident on a surface, per unit area. It is a measure of how much the incident light illuminates the surface. The term brightness correlates more with physiological consciousness and human perception of light. Brightness cannot be quantified. Likewise, intangible qualities such as perception or emotion cannot be quantified. In order to bridge the two aspects of light both qualitative and quantitative, I decided to take my research further and map light projected onto a surface in an infrared representation, using DIVA. DIVA is a highly optimized daylighting and energy modeling program. Illuminance and radiation data can mapped directly onto the surface of rooms in order to provide an immediate and perceptible understanding of the spaces imperceptible environmental conditions. Having the infrared representation of a space juxtaposed with a rendering, I began to understand what is humanly acceptable in terms of natural lighting condition governed by ASHRAE along with phenomenological and sensorial aspects of light based on perception.
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