On the energy of the sun - at the London docks
Day or night, light or shadow, dusk or a play of halftones? How to capture the energy of the sun in offices and residential buildings, under the roofs of which our contemporaries sometimes spend up to 90% of their time? And how can we manage natural light to change our lives for the better? How to reconcile post-industrial society with nature? All the nuances of these problems were discussed at the VELUX Daylight 2015 symposium.
On the grounds of the old London docks (19th century buildings), given new life by the efforts of modern architects and designers, they discussed trends in building architecture and interior design, the layout of urban areas and small towns, research and advanced concepts for the use of sunlight.
The central theme is how to "catch" light and shadow in architectural forms for the benefit of people? These secrets were shared by the participants of the symposium, as if trying to lead us out of the sooty caves by the hand.
Oil, gas, coal and even nuclear fuel are not endless resources. And the harm to health from them is sometimes more than good. Therefore, many fighters for the environment are actively "promoting" the celestial body as an inexhaustible (in the next billion years) source of energy.
Other experts object to ecologists, recalling the endless deserts on Earth, burned out by an overabundance of sunlight. And in those parts of this heat shelter dwellings in the shade, and solar energy is trying to fill the batteries. But in most of Europe (and even more so in Russia), solar energy is more likely for the good and for joy, since the star of our planetary system spoils these regions with light and warmth irregularly. Therefore, many participants in the symposium called for a more effective use of daylight, repeating, like a mantra, the phrase "sustainable development".
Tame the light in Danish
Some experts, on the contrary, urged to rely not so much on development as on a return to the experience of the past. Chinese professor of architecture Song Yehao cited the experience of the ancient builders of East Asia as an example. Permeability in classical Chinese houses, according to Professor Sun, ordered all the space both inside and around them. But the Industrial Revolution and Western influence have stripped Asian architecture of this translucency, and with it, its national identity.
The harsh expanses of Northern Europe have never pampered people with an excess of sunlight and warmth, and therefore "Nordic" dwellings are not permeable. But modern Scandinavian architects are increasingly trying to design "sun catchers". For example, the project presented at the symposium for the renovation of existing buildings on three levels (entire neighborhood, separate building, one apartment) from the Danish architectural firm Henning Larsen Architects confirmed the Danes' reputation as masters of "domestication" of light.
And what is needed for this? Typically, architects use light to create large accents - hide one detail, bring the other to the fore. And usually it does not come to subtle strokes. The Danes, on the other hand, tried to delve into all the details - so that even a few sun rays could be caught in the windows and folds of the walls.
If the problem in the north is how to catch the sun, then what about the south? Architect David Nelson, partner of the famous Norman Foster, at the symposium paid more attention to the problem of shadow. In his opinion, the redundancy of sunlight raises shadows into the "main characters" of architecture. And in the southern latitudes, it is the shadow, not the light, that begins to dictate the conditions for the selection of building materials and in the design solutions for facades, roofs and interiors.
One of the stars of the symposium was the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, who dissolves his "paintings" in space. More precisely, his large-scale installations become part of the landscape or bring cities to life. For example, a few years ago, thanks to Eliasson, the bridges of Manhattan got real waterfalls. Another of his famous works consisted of a room with a large circular opening in the ceiling through which a ray of sunlight painted images on the walls inside. And in the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern, the artist placed an artificial sun in combination with real fog: his Weather Project (2003-2004) was incredibly popular among citizens and tourists.
Recently, Olafur Eliasson, together with engineer Frederik Ottesen, have been actively promoting the Little Sun project - a system of cheap lighting devices for those areas of the Earth where there is no access to power grids. Little Sun, together with VELUX, hosted an international Natural Light competition. The winners were students from Argentina - 23-year-old Luca Fondello and 22-year-old Mariana Arando, who are studying industrial designers at the University of Buenos Aires. They developed a simple hand-held solar light. 14,500 prototypes of such a lamp will be distributed in Africa (Senegal, Zimbabwe and Zambia) in early 2016.
Architect as a medic
Quite often at the symposium there were remarks about the need to build "healthy buildings", in the sense of not "huge", but harmless or even beneficial to human health. Many of us have to spend most of our lives indoors. And how to provide such people with sunshine in an amount sufficient for vitality? And architects and builders can do this only in close cooperation with specialists in medicine, physiology, psychology and other disciplines that study man and society.
British sustainability specialist Koen Steemers elaborated on the aspects of “healthy building” and described the spaces where people can feel comfortable. In his opinion, architecture is one of the main elements of human well-being, along with money and social status.
Cohen Steemers believes that habitat design is critical to quality of life. Changing his living environment (home, office, club), anyone can change the quality of his life, affect his health and longevity. And it turns out that the profession of an architect is similar to that of a physician.
It is important to remember about the atmosphere inside buildings
The organizer of the VELUX Group symposium has long been developing in its projects the idea of economical use of natural resources and life in harmony with the surrounding world. As part of the Model Home 2020 concept project, VELUX has built houses in various European countries that efficiently use light, warmth and fresh air.
VELUX actively supports research into the effects of natural light on human health and has been organizing such symposia every two years since 2005. And also VELUX holds international competitions for students of architecture schools. Thus, future architects are urged not to confine themselves in their projects only to the search for spectacular forms: now they need to remember not only about the interior, but also about the atmosphere inside the building.
And also architects and builders must learn to feel the space on a large scale - in dense urban development or more sparse urban development. How to change the planning structure, how to arrange buildings so that they receive better light, so that the inhabitants of these buildings feel full comfort.
New lighting standards are just a project so far
One of the "prophets" of our time, Le Corbusier once said: "The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for light." Developing this thesis, Natalia Sokol, representing the Gdansk University of Technology, emphasized the "fight for the rational use of daylight." At the symposium, she shared the experience of Polish urban planners. She is sure that the visual perception of space greatly affects the health of people living there. Therefore, in Poland, they are trying to convince officials to amend building codes and regulations, taking into account the standards of natural light.
By the way, about the standards. New building codes were also discussed at a symposium in London. At the same time, architects and designers were encouraged to work more closely with medical professionals to determine building codes that would truly be beneficial to humans.
Professor of the Danish Institute for Building Research, Marc Fontoynont, presented the draft "European standard for natural lighting", which is being developed jointly by many experts from the EU countries. It will be a whole set of rules and regulations for architects and builders: how workplaces in offices and factories should be lit, how to use solar energy efficiently in homes and buildings, how to calculate the energy requirement for lighting premises.
The adoption of these standards will simplify and at the same time complicate the work of architects and builders. But most importantly, it will oblige construction customers and developers not to save on the health of people who have to live or work in new buildings.
The main goal is to prevent the appearance of poorly lit rooms (in northern latitudes) and, conversely, an overabundance of the sun (in the "global South") in the future. Ideally, according to the experts, according to the new standards, natural lighting of the premises will be provided for at least half of all "sunny" hours a year. And now it will be necessary to take into account not only the size of the windows, their number and transparency, but also the orientation of buildings to the cardinal points, and the mutual arrangement of the facades of neighboring buildings. In fact, architects and builders will have to model the microclimate both inside buildings and in entire villages and microdistricts.
The problem of accounting for natural lighting in Russia
Russia was represented at the symposium by a small group of architects and specialists invited by the VELUX Group. One of them is Alexei Ivanov (Moscow's "Ivanov's Architectural Studio ARCHDESIGN"), who is engaged in the design of low-rise housing and villages. In an interview for Archi.ru, he noted that the Russian customer is not yet ready to take natural light into account when designing residential buildings, offices and industrial buildings:
“This theme comes up after the economy, the location of the site and the rest - somewhere in the fifteenth place,” says the architect.
Aleksey Ivanov is also sure that when designing new settlements in Russia, it would be very useful to take into account natural light, but so far this is only a dream: “We still have the biggest problem - the lack of professional customers. The person who is engaged in the construction of settlements is usually enough for one project. Well, two. Beginners, on the other hand, count everything on the go. They change the type of houses - the building density changes, which means that the social load, transport, engineering also require recalculation. We have to redesign and re-negotiate. Five years ago there was no such question - how to redesign. But now the financial situation dictates such flexibility."
But the customer dictates his will not only in the vastness of Russia. And this is already a global problem: how can an architect convince a customer that it is necessary to take into account not only cement, brick and paint, that all these materials must necessarily be supplemented by sunlight? And here everything depends not only on the architect's flight of imagination, but also on his talent as a "negotiator".
