LUX E DAYLIGHT & DAYLIGHT ARCHITECTURE BY MAGAZINE V SPRING 2006 ISSUE 05 TEXTURE & LIGHT 10 EURO SPRING 2006 ISSUE 05 TEXTURE & LIGHT 10 EURO DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE BY VELUX Light’s touch changes everything. What lay shrouded in darkness DISCOURSE is revealed, and hidden spaces suddenly open wide under light’s dance. In itself, unseen, we see by means of light’s selfless activ- ity. In physics, the refinement of light’s touch is measured by its BY wavelength. The very smallness of visible light’s internal patterned movement guarantees that the tiniest detail, the most subtle tex- ARTHUR ture, remains visible. The brushed surface of metal and the filam- entary strands of the spider’s web would both fade into invisibility if light were larger, its wavelength longer. Z AJONC Einstein alerted us to the unique role played by the speed of light, which is a universal absolute in a relative universe, an ulti- mate limit in a limitless cosmos. He and Max Planck discovered that, although massless, even light has its least part – the quan- tum or photon. And yet that quantum, like light itself, eludes our conceptual grasp, maintaining its subtle ambiguity and whole- ness through all attempts to confine and define it. Over count- less years, starlight travels from the most distance reaches of space and from the beginnings of time to reach our eyes. In a mir- acle of reciprocity, our eyes are so perfectly adapted to light that only a few light quanta are needed for sight. What to our sensi- bilities is the long journey of light through the cosmos lasting ten billion years, is to the photon a mere instant – such are the mys- teries of relativity. Through the mastery of fire we first brought light from the heavens to hearth and home. By the light of a candle we reflect or read, draw or pray. Its timeless lux spreads out from a small flame to brighten a chamber, but then it swiftly travels beyond us into the night sky answering the luminous call of the stars: our light meeting starlight face to face. When our bodies are brushed by light, we warm and open our- selves like dark sanctuaries to the penetrating luminosity of sun and sky. No wonder cathedral builders knit geometry to light in service of theology; no wonder evolution has knit plants to the silent power of sunlight in the service of life. Light is the architect of the organic world, and conversely in architecture “structure is the giver of light” – so wrote Louis Kahn. Arthur Zajonc is professor of physics at Amherst Col- lege, where he has taught since 978. He has researched extensively about the experimental foundations of quan- tum physics and the relationship between the sciences and the humanities. His seminal book Catching the Light, on the history of light in human culture, was published in 993. In 997 and 2002, Arthur Zajonc was scien- tific coordinator for the Mind and Life Dialogues with the Dalai Lama. He is also a former president of the An- throposophical Society in America. VELUX EDITORIal Surface and form is the ultimate materialisation face and the interaction with daylight. We present daYliGhtinG ‘HANDS ON’ of texture. And texture is the tangible top layer of their answers to try to uncover what lies BENEATH, the substance. Our eyes guide us to understand adding new reflections to the web of life. BENeaTH these matters. The façade and the roof of a house is like our Since the beginning of man, we have trusted skin reacting on changing weather conditions – en- upon our ability to judge on behalf of what we see. abling protection and providing the living condi- This judgement is crucial for our survival. But some- tions that are vital for our health and well-being. times what we see turns out to be different from Without daylight there will be no life. But light is what we expected. We experience that when we also vital for our understanding of physical sur- put on our hands and feel the material on our skin. roundings – contexts as well as for our mental bal- Consequently, we adapt and adjust our perception ance. VELUX would like to set new standards for What happens when light meets a surface? How and understanding of surfaces and substances. indoor comfort and energy efficiency within the profound is its effect? And how has our percep- This issue of Daylight & Architecture tries to built environment, improving our living and work- tion of textures and light altered in the course of scratch the notion of surface, to uncover what is ing conditions. The VELUX Atika concept house the centuries? An essay and 3 interviews with behind the visible layer, searching for magic – or realises this vision in a full-scale experiment that artists, architects and scientists throw some light eventually darkness? Outside in. Inside out. “I have you can see and feel. 14 on the matter. seen it with my own eyes” – Does it give any mean- ing in the future? We asked 3 highly respected Enjoy reading issue #5. REFlections persons from various fields of art and science to relate their knowledge with the concept of sur- VELUX IMAGE AND RealITY Two-dimensional images will continue to determine the way we perceive architecture, according to Ivan Redi – because they help us test our personal con- SPRING 2007 CONTENTS cepts of reality. In his article, Redi describes the ap- proach adopted for the presentation of architecture ISSue 05 over the last 250 years – from Piranesi’s ‘Carceri’ to 76 today’s photorealistic light simulations. Discourse by Arthur Zajonc now VELUX InsiGht 2 VELUX Editorial 3 Contents WITHIN HeavY WallS 4 Now 8 Mankind and architecture Certain slants of light What is probably Le Corbusier’s last masterwork 4 Daylighting has been inaugurated in Firminy, France. The Haus Beneath der Kunst (House of Art) in Munich invites the 74 European Light public to the Andreas Gursky retrospective. An The archaeological museum in the castle of Brie- Eastern Anatolia, Turkey apartment house in Mexico City has been deco- Comte-Robert was not built for eternity. But de- 76 Reflections rated with hand-blown glass balls, another in Mu- spite its lightweight design, which will make it easy Image and reality nich with silk-screen printed chestnut-tree leaves. to remove quickly when the time comes, it still pos- 84 Daylighting details Plus: The new concert house in Badajoz by José sesses all the qualities of a normal museum – the Light Simulacra in Film Selgas and Lucia Cano is an underground but most important being a pleasant atmosphere and 90 VELUX Insight 4 bright and airy building. 90 rooms full of daylight. Within Heavy Walls Museum in Brie-Comte-Robert 98 VELUX Panorama Mankind & ARchitectURE VELUX PanoRama Raising the roof ÁTIKA concept house for the CERTAIN SlaNTS OF LIGHT Mediterranean climate A convertible in larchwood Klimczyk house in Rieden 08 VELUX Dialogue Light of Tomorrow Ideologies, as well as light conditions and building Interview with Louise Grønlund traditions that differ from region to region, have Becker Architekten designed Klimczyk house Interview with Gonzalo Pardo had a decisive influence on how light and surfaces in Rieden to the principle of a convertible car. The Interview with Anastasia Karandinou have been handled in architecture. In his article, larchwood panelling of the large loggias can be 116 Books Richard Weston explains how architects have ne- folded completely to one side. Atika, the mobile con- Reviews gotiated the difficult terrain between honesty of cept house, also strikes the eye due to its outwardly Recommendations design and sophisticated disguise and how they differentiated architecture that matches the move- 20 Preview have worked with light and shadow, reflections ment of the sun. It proves that lightweight construc- 8 and translucency. 98 104 tion can make sense in southern climes as well. 2 D&A spRinG 2007 IssUE 05 3 The things that make architecture tick: NOW events, competitions and selected new devel- opments from the world of daylighting. ANDReaS GuRSKY IN THE ‘HauS DER KUNST’ Andreas Gursky was born in 955 and his photography of monumental architectures, huge throngs of peo- ple and dazzling worlds of consump- tion, mostly captured from above and reproduced in large formats, have made him the most success- ful living photographer – at least in terms of the prices his images com- mand at auction. From now until 3 May 2007, the Haus der Kunst gal- lery in Munich is displaying a collec- tion of his works consisting of 50 photographs. “Even bigger” reads one of the guiding themes of the new Gursky exhibition: covering ,800 square metres, the opulent exhibi- tion area is not the only aspect that is big - much of the photographic ma- terial has also been reworked and re- S R produced in a larger format utilising E G A the possibilities available today. The M O R largest of these now measure 88 x de R O 508 centimetres. hilomene C / P / In the early 980s, Andreas Gur- th nando RÜ R sky studied at the State Art Acad- P S Fe : emy in Düsseldorf under Bernd onika hoto P and Hilla Becher. However, Gursky Y M Y soon broke away from their mini- tes UR Let it not be said that handicraft no construct its reality through repeti- north and south facades of the build- O malist, strictly documentary style FaÇADE ART, longer has a role to play in modern tion; from the need to incorporate ing, as well as the roof terrace, with C . of photography and began to cap- nst HAND BLOWN civil engineering.