Light Revealing Experience

Light begins as soon as we begin, from birth until our death, light for most people is an everyday aspect. Life with light creates what we see, people, buildings, art, anything and everything is available thanks to this natural phenomenon. Articulating light and understanding why it does what it does is a valuable part of being a designer. We can’t control light from happening but we can control how we use it and how to take advantage of it in different situations. Lighting in a place has many various factors that go into consideration such as its use, site, weather, sunlight. Natural lighting has to be a part of the design and you have to account for it and let the light work for you rather than against. The writer talks about how certain areas receive different amounts of light and that’s important to know or have some basic understanding of at least. Buildings are often formed like they are to account for natural lighting, perhaps the greatest known example is the work of Taadao Ando. Ando shapes lighting and allows for natural light and his architecture is heavily influenced by the lighting itself. 

Nature is perhaps the most beautiful place in which to find inspiration, and lighting in nature just adds to the marvel. Seeing something in the morning and viewing it again at night is a completely different experience because the color values change constantly throughout the day. Bringing nature inside is a difficult task to accomplish but you can bridge the gap by letting your design be influenced by nature and taking cues from nature to affect your design. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House is a prime example in which he used a window on the north side to shape and abstract. By doing this he managed to make the window nearly disappear and create a surreal experience in which the visitor feels far more engaged with the outside creating an intimate scenario. 

Climate is another factor that’s affected by light; light creates heat and for different regions this changes things in drastic ways. The author starts by saying “the interaction between light and climate is multidimensional. It has to do with the spirit of place, with thermal comfort, and also with culture, since climate affects people, their habits, and their rituals.” Many people choose where they live based on the yearly kind of weather there. Most people prefer to have more sunny days versus cloudy days although I’m sure there are some exceptions. Places that are cooler want more light because they generally want warmer weather and vice versa. 

Time is perhaps one of the clearest examples of how light affects us as people, time happens constantly and throughout time things change. Nature, places, buildings, seasons are just some the examples we see occurring in our daily life that are altered by light and time together. The article refers to ancient grounds such as the great pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in England which are still thought to have been early prototypes for telling time in some shape or form. It also talks about how near the equator the days and nights have equality and on the Arctic and Antarctic circles, the length of days can vary from a few hours to an entire 24 hours. Seasons is personally the biggest change that deals with time, you learn from a kid that in the Fall it gets darker earlier and in the Summer your days last even longer. Knowing that always seemed so secondary but it’s the basic idea of light and you understand that even as a child. One of the more memorable statements throughout the reading was the one that says “the biggest shift in light comes as day turns to night, and then reappears. We take this for granted - perhaps more so when we rely on electric light, thereby blurring the differences.” I take from this that looking at something before the sun sets looks one way and looking at it again when the light reappears shows you a completely new view and provides you with more of a perspective. When the sun goes down and comes back up things are totally different, and a sunset is a great example because you will never see one similar sunset. 

Electric light tries to do what natural light can’t do and that’s provide you an alternative to natural when you just don’t have any. This creates so many different design problems and almost every problem has a different approach, some effective and some/many are not. The task can be influenced by the lighting type, bulb and the strength. You don’t want to work in a space where to lighting is an intimate candlelit situation, nor do you want to be in a restaurant with bright fluorescent lights aiming down upon you. But task lighting is tricky in the sense that people prefer different things to accomplish what they’re setting out to do. 

Any lighting is something as people of design we should take note of and learn from past experiences and nature and anything else we can and use that to our advantage. Whether it’s dealing with a building that’s in the mountains or designing a desk lamp or renovating a room. Lighting is and has to be thought out, if it’s not you will suffer from a something that does function or doesn’t work quite like you want it to. Light is with most of us from birth until death and if studied correctly we can learn tons and tons from it alone.