Master Thesis in Architecture – MPARC Chalmers. Fall Semester 2015
Abstract (Draft 2015-09-10)
This Master Thesis aims to investigate an immersive integration of daylight into a residential context, to explore how light and darkness – and the tensions in between them – shape the structure itself and the ways one lives within it. The project aims to elaborate a daylight program and to explore means of reaching desired lighting targets through the use and development of passive architectural daylight methods. It intends to revisit, and perhaps redefine, conventional lighting standards and to promote an architecture that advocates the integration of daylight into the every day of life lived within it.
The result and the final goal is to implement the findings into the design of a building, a daylight-tuned dwelling, that is in harmony with its surroundings and its users. A building that encourages to live with light and that enables an active dialogue with its surroundings and the natural rhythms of life.
The design proposal aims to tell a story of the visual perception of space that alters with the pace of daylight. It is a story that is predictable while at the same time truly variable, thus very fascinating. Defined by shadow is the story of a static structure that comes alive through the integration of daylight. It is the design of a divergent space that has a divers set of spatial qualities, activated and enhanced by the ever changing surrounding lighting situation.
Purpose
The development of a method for daylight design in a residential context and the application of this method in a design proposal that will investigate the process where light, darkness and the tensions between them are the main form givers of the structure itself and the ways one lives within it.
Focus
Explore the creation and sculpturing of space without the use of a tangible material. Investigate perceived geometrical alterations of space, solely by the use of light. Distinguish and recognize how light, and its absence, can generate different atmospheres in the same physical environment. Explore the interplay an the correlation between light, darkness and materiality. Study how architecture can communicate with its surroundings, with nature and with time.
Relevance
Daylight is free to all – and it is abundant – inspire others to work more with daylight and to explore all the benefits from doing so. My hopes are that designing with daylight can inspire to a simpler lifestyle. Promote sustainable daylight solutions – less energy consumption and better thermal control. Develop a method for daylight design and the integration of artificial light, that can be used in any given residential context.
Process
Below is the basic outline for the process. It will begin with a thorough site analysis to identify the prerequisites, followed by the development of an architectural program in conjunction with a daylight program. After setting up this framework and finding the volumes for the building the definition of the interior spaces begins. This will be done through the investigation of the “inside-out” method, starting with complete darkness and defining the space by careful integration of daylight. When this space-by-space definition is done the task of assembling them all together in a holistic composition is next.
When the composition is done it is time to put together the findings in a final design proposal. This proposal will be presented in “a play” (photos or video or both), to demonstrate the, by daylight, altered visual perception of the designed spaces. The final design proposal will also be presented by conventional architectural drawings.