|
So it is safe to say that the ebb and flow of architectural interest in daylighting and fenestration over the last 60 years mimics the daily cycle of the sun. However over the last few years we are witnessing a resurgence of interest in daylighted buildings, driven in part by a renewed interest in the welfare of occupants within buildings and by longer term, broader concerns encompassed within the "green building" and sustainable design movements.
The creation of well-daylighted buildings remains a challenge that is surprisingly difficult to meet. Flooding a building with daylight requires no particular architectural skill. A more appropriate response must balance the needs of owners, occupants, and society by integrating concerns for identity, aesthetics, amenity, comfort, energy efficiency and cost effectiveness. Great architectural designs have not always been environmentally friendly and elegantly engineered solutions sometimes fail to meet basic human needs.
Among other things, architecture is about fit, revelation and prediction. It should fit with what is there and what transpires, and it should reveal what is there and how events change. And the fit and revelation are not just now, at the start of design, but overtime, in the future; thus, prediction.
Nothing is more important to architecture in this process than daylight. Daylight does much more than merely allow us to carry on the tasks and activities we built the building for, it reveals the passage of the day and tells us something about the quality of the day outside the building. It informs and connects.
So let the sun shine in.
|