FUNDAMENTALS OF NATURAL LIGHT AND ITS ROLE ON ARCHITECTURE

Monica A. Rivera College of Architecture and Urban Studies Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Estate University M. Arch2 November 2, 2004

Introduction
Omnipresent, light shapes everything in the world we know, but do we really understand its nature? Do we, for example, understand how it is

generated, how it is composed, how we perceive it, and more important, how does it influence us? This is a brief essay about the fundamentals of natural light, its nature, and its role on architecture.

Light, Color and Vision

Besides an outer light and eye, sight requires an inner light, one whose luminance complements the familiar outer light and transforms raw sensation into meaningful perception. The light of the mind must flow into and marry with the light of nature to bring forth a world.
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Light is electromagnetic radiation. Visible light is just a small part of the full electromagnetic spectrum. We can perceive light that has a wavelength in the range from about 400 (violet) to about 700 (red) nanometers in the light spectrum.
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Zajonc, Artur, Catching the Light, the Entwined History of Light and Mind, (Oxford University Press, 1993)

When different wavelengths composing white light touch objects, some are absorbed by the matter, and others not. The last ones are reflected into our eyes, as the color we perceive.
Light reflected from objects enters the eye through the pupil. The optics of the eye forms an upside-down image of those objects on the rear, inner surface of the eyeball (the retina). There, a dense carpet of light sensitive

photoreceptors converts light (photons) into electro-chemical signals which are processed by neutral circuits in the retina and transmitted to the brain. 2

We have two kind of photoreceptors, one that let us see at night, but not distinguish color (rods), and the other which is not very good at night, but lets us perceive color during daylight conditions (cones). An inner eye is also

necessary to understand what light touches, an eye that play a game of reflections with light, understanding that what we see is not what is there, but what the light want to show us of that.

http://www.webexhitits.org/causesofcolor/1G.html

The eye doesnt tell the story alone. Visual nourishment of the brain at early periods after birth is decisive for the development of the physiological stage of visual processing. Failing to learn to see could result in almost indefinite blindness. The optical stage provides the raw message, but it is the physiological stage that determines what can be seen.
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Artur Zajonc relates in

his book, Catching the Light, the Entwined History of Light and Mind about the case of a boy who was born blind. When he was 12 years old, he recovered the sight by a surgery. In spite his eyes could see, his mind didnt recognize what he was seen. The associations between images and objects were not developed on his mind. His real eyes were his hands, not the eyes. He needed touch and feel every thing in order to determine what it was. Our mind sees not just because our eyes can do, but because we have learned a natural way to process the information of what we see. Basic forms and bright colors call our attention when we are infants. Then, our mind weaves associations between these forms touching- and the images we got of them. Its color, texture, thickness, height, softness or hardness, etc is associated with the image that we have of it. We learn in this way, for example, that an apple is relatively aspheric and red. When we see an apple again we know its

characteristics, not just because our eyes are seeing it, but because our mind takes the main features of what we are seeing and looks for previous similar images on our mind; images that impregnated our memory and linked with concepts. Even though we are under dark conditions, we could know that is an apple, because our mind will grab the main characteristics of its form, and will recall and compare with the images we have stored of this object.

Sun and Seasonal Variation

The sun, star that enlightens and gives life to our world, has been burning for more than 4,600 million years, even before the Earth existence 4. Its
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http://www.webexhitits.org/causesofcolor/1C.html Translated from El sol, vivir con una estrella tormentosa, in National Geographic, pp13, July 2004

fiery force and our dependency on it made ancient cultures praise the sun as a god. Temples and sacrifices were built and offered to its name. Even nowadays we can find and see how some indigenous people continues celebrating sun rituals as the Inti Raymi Festival in Ecuador and Peru, which celebrates the summer solstice and the arrival of harvest. In many ways the sun determines most of our life practices. Day and night determine our daily schedules, which include time for work, for rest or eat. Seasons determine sowing, weeding and harvest time, which fulfill our most primary need for nourishment. We are pilgrims of light, in a constant search through it; influenced by it in every action we perform. We are unnoticed

witnesses and subjects of this magic play of changing light, of changing people. As the light changes, it changes us with it. It changes our mood, our food, our customs, and our dress. What determine these variations in light? The variations of light during the day and the year are directly related to the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun. This means that on certain dates, the earth is closest to sun and on others is farthest. But, more important, is the off-axis rotation of the earth (23.45), which changes the path of the sun through the sky significantly during the year. The lower the sun is on the sky, the more of Earths atmosphere sun rays has to pass through to reach the surface, thus the more scattering and absorption occurs. Also, the greater the angle the direct radiation makes with the ground, the greater the surface area its energy is spread over, reducing its intensity and its heating capacity 5

http:://www.squ1.com/solar/solar-radiation.html

The most important consequence of the inclination of the Earths axis and its elliptical course is the seasonal variation. Length of day and night is

determined by the position of the earth on its elliptical course around the sun, hence, the importance of 4 dates at the year, which determine the start of the seasons. The solstices post the two days of maximum difference between the lengths of day and night, and the maximum and minimum angle of incidence of sun rays over earth surface. Winter solstice marks the day at which the sun writes its shortest path and reaches the lower point on the sky. From this point on, sun starts its journey of ascension on the sky, expanding its course east west. Conversely, the summer solstice signs the day at which the sun reaches its highest point at sky and its wider course. The equinoxes sign the two only days on the year in which day and night has the same duration, then the days will continue its course to the light or to the darkness. The angle that the sun

reaches at sunrise and sunset respect to the north (azimuth) and the vertical angle the sun makes with the horizontal ground plane (0 to 90) will depend on the latitude of the place in reference. For example at the equator length of day and night are almost the same year round, so we always can see sunrise at precise east and sunset at west. The angle of incidence is almost 90 degrees during the most part of the year (exactly perpendicular at 2 equinoxes), with slightly variation on where the light come from, half of the year from the north, 5

half from the south, but with really slightly variations what gives a relatively invariable climate if we compare it with the northern and southern latitudes where the drastic variations give place to the seasons.

A sun chart will help us to understand which are the variations on sun path and consequently on light during a specific day and year for the particular site latitudes where a project is located. Some Internet pages provide us with

valuable information about it, and even complete sun charts just by adding information about longitude and latitude of the site. On the bibliography you can find some of these sites, however, the manual construction of a sun chart will help us to understand better the mechanic and how we can read it.

Sunchart for a latitude 30North

Light on Architecture
As an element of design, day lighting plays an important role in creating more pleasant and productive atmospheres for the people within buildings. Natural light offers a subtle and unnoticed moderation of levels, that doesnt tire our bodies, as most of the artificial light systems broadly used in buildings today. Although weve always responded to light and color, the studies about the effects of artificial light over our organism are relatively recent. We dont know with certainty what effects artificial light has on our bodies in a long term. In a relatively short time since the improvement on efficiency and costs of artificial lighting, we have moved indoors for most part of our daily activities, away from contact with nature: natural light, natural air, vegetation, etc. Just the time will tell us the consequences; meanwhile, we just can be unwitting subjects of a longterm experiment on the effects of artificial lighting on our health 6 Daylight can be for some people of our modern and crowded cities the only contact with nature and with us as human beings. Hence the importance for
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Tony Hiss, The experience of place, (New York, Vintage Books, 1991), pp10

trying to catch this light and bring it indoors. Even though, problem of day lighted spaces is not resolved just by adding large windows to the buildings, the quality of light is also important, because we need to be sure to control the amount of light that comes in into a space. Light plays a double role at architecture. One practical, which has always urged the architect for new building systems that permit bigger

fenestrations that allow more penetration of natural light, in this case the aim is the light itself. Guided just by this principle, architecture can fall at the excessive use of artificial light, or cloned

architecture; the same facade, the same skin, the same amount of light everywhere, without regard for its site, people, even for its use.

The other role of light is poetic. Light has the capacity of touch our souls with tenderness, or disturbs our essence; make us feel in peace with ourselves or make us feel our triviality as human beings as when we contemplate a sunset. This power of the light has been used on architecture to strike people, to express subtleness as in the work of Tadao Ando, or to strike us with its splendor as in the Pantheon, but every time that light touches our souls, is because it has been treated as an integral part of the building design, and not just as an aim for functionality. Treated as a material to be protagonist as well as an ingredient that make the others shine, light is never soundless. It is the light that makes us feels alive.

Church of the light, Tadao Ando; Gipsoteca Canoviana, Possagno, 1955-1957, Carlo Scarpa; Pantheon

Even Le Corbusier, who strongly promulgated the architecture of pure forms and long windows, possible due to new construction techniques, succumbed to its charming, displaying at Ronchamp a quite different and inventive language of forms and light playing together, creating the true correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light that inspire and touch us.

Roncham, Le Corbusier

Two has been the main roles of light on architecture, one functional, the other poetic. Is it possible to fuse them to reach a coherent architecture that answers the functional requirements and at the same time nourish our spirit?

Imatra church, Alvar Alto. 1958

In the example above, Alvar Alto fuses the functional and programmatic needs of the project, its orientation on the site, and how he treats the light, with the need for spiritual nourishment that people go looking for in a church. Evocative spaces are the result of a well use of light, fitted to the needs of a particular the program. Obviously it depends on the kind of spaces we are talking about, and what people go looking for on those places. Sometimes the architect will have to

decide what is more important on a project, and then one of the roles will be evident over the other. Even though it is always important keep in mind that the spaces are designed for people, and people is always looking for that something else that transcend on their minds, and makes an experience memorable.

Bibliography

Zajonc, Artur, Catching the Light, the Entwined History of Light and Mind, (Oxford University Press, 1993)

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Tony Hiss, The experience of place, (New York, Vintage Books, 1991) Gregg D. Ander, Daylighting performance and Design, Second Edition, (Wiley, Canada, 2003) Bruno Zevi, Light as Architectural Form, World Architecture,1994, N.14, p 5659. http:://www.squ1.com/solar/solar-radiation.html http://www.webexhitits.org/causesofcolor/1G.html

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