This intensive educational experience is set against a backdrop of the Italian Veneto, where participants are involved in daylight matter and its design, simulation and integration.
The course introduces the culture of daylight both as an expressive device, and as a technical tool for a sustainable design approach. Artificial light is presented not as an independent topic, but both in its integration with daylight and its increasing capacity as a key component for a positive impact on human well-being. Alongside these studies, the course encompasses a full programme of lectures, seminars and conferences delivered by a varied body of experts and professionals, as well as a series of tutor-led workshops encouraging innovation and experimentation within these themes.
Set in the town of Vicenza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the course includes guided tours to experience the play of light in architecture, from Renaissance masterpieces by Palladio and Scamozzi, to Carlo Scarpa’s works, and provides access to contemporary buildings by Piano, Fuksas, Ando, and to the recent Traverso-Vighy daylight experiments.
The course philosophy stresses the necessity of analyzing daylight strategies as part of the basic concepts of an architecture project; using the circadian system in both natural and artificial lighting to positively influence our experience, and sharing a new consciousness of the importance of the influence of darkness on the built environment.
The course is open to architects and lighting designers, both student and professional, from across the globe. For more information, and details on how to apply for the course, please visit our website, or email us at information@daylight-thinking.com.
China has announced that it will join the US and the EU in phasing out the use of incandescent light bulbs. The move is set to commence in October 2012 for bulbs of 100 watts and above, with a complete ban being introduced by October 2016. Over a billion incandescent bulbs are used annually across the country, and with the ban in place, China could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 48 million tonnes per year.
However, despite the obvious environmental benefits of such a strategy, it is not all good news. Investigations have been made into the effects of energy-saving Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) on human health and well-being, the results of which are not so positive.
Politically, governments are often so concerned with the problems of global warming and creating energy efficient environments that they fail to include other factors, in this case the well-being of their citizens. Instead of imposing a complete ban on the incandescent lightbulb as an object, we ought to think about our relationship with and our use of our light sources. Using artificial light only when required, rather than the background and supplementary lighting which is all too often unnecessary, would also enable us to increase the energy efficiency of such systems and lower carbon dioxide production, while simultaneously taking human health and well-being into account. The answer, we would suggest, is always to select the right light for the right place at the right time.
The Sustainability Pre-Convention Meeting held at the end of October in Madrid proved to be a great success, with more than fifty attendees from across the world.
The focus was on building a common strategy on sustainable design themes, daylight matters and lighting benefits for human well being. The meeting was chaired by Heinrich Kramer, FPLDA, and Giovanni Traverso, sustainability director of PLDA, and their presentation from the conference can now be downloaded here. This presentation highlights the importance and health benefits of a natural daylight pattern, and the positive effects which new technologies such as LED and control systems can have through energy efficiency and the emulation of natural lighting conditions.
The participants of the convention demonstrated great enthusiasm, and encouraged much discussion of the presentation. We would like for this active enthusiasm and participation to continue through the medium of this blog, enabling PLDA Greenpages to become more of an interactive forum for discussion and information on the subject of sustainable lighting design. Following on from the convention, the aim is now to discuss and debate these matters on this blog, and to develop new opportunities for further events and practical workshops.
Please post any information on your research and thoughts about the subject that you would like to share and debate with our sustainabilitycommunity, or send your information to sustainability@traverso-vighy.com
Interview with the French architects Lacaton&Vassal that have been awarded the 2011 Daylight and Building Component Award. The annual award, given by the VELUX and VILLUM Foundations is a recognition of Lacaton & Vassal’s many years of dedication to working with daylight.
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal are principals in Lacaton & Vassal, an architecture firm they started together in 1987. Their designs balance aspects of daylight quality, energy consumption and low-budget economy in a humanistic and aesthetically convincing manner.
The practice has transformed a number of social housing developments in France, where one of their guiding principles is that 90 percent of what is required for most projects is already available on site. Demolition of social housing, they maintain, is not an environmentally friendly option regardless of how green the replacement building may be.
Lacaton and Vassal are inspired by buildings with large open spaces: hangars, warehouses, large greenhouses and supermarkets. In these structures they have found new ways to use standard construction systems to transform older buildings. By bringing more light into the buildings, removing as many walls as possible, creating better acoustics and using glass as an extra facade on the building, they have succeeded in transforming both private and large public projects.
Here an interesting article explains how artificial light affects the natural system in a very incisive way and underlines once again the importance to fix regulations on this problem.
A conservation group urges BP to make lighting changes on its Gulf of Mexico oil platforms. It says the fixes are needed to save thousands of migrating birds.White lights on oil and gas platforms cause an estimated 200,000 bird deaths per year because migrating songbirds are drawn to the lights then become disoriented and exhausted as they circle the platforms, a release from the American Bird Conservancy said Friday.Some birds crash into the platform or fall into the ocean from exhaustion and others land on the platform where there is no food or drinking water.When finally able to leave, they can be in a weakened state and unable to make landfall or are more vulnerable to predation, the ABC said.”We are talking about simple fixes to existing platform lighting,” said Michael Fry, ABC director of conservation advocacy.”We need to replace both white and red lights with commercially available green lights, shield the lights from above and reduce the duration of nighttime lighting during bird migration periods,” he said.”Safety concerns can be managed within the framework of these changes,” Fry said.Other countries, such as the Netherlands, have instituted bird-friendly lighting on oil and gas platforms off their coasts, the ABC said. read more
Strolling around the Milan Salone I run into a delicate fluttering of light. Trough a clever use of LEDs, these lamps provide a sustainable use of energy but also drive to a individual light modulation. Telling stories of Japanese fireflies that can no longer see each other because of artificial lighting of our nights, this young designer decided to put her creativity to the conception of a low lamp which follows the “right lamp for right task” philosophy, encouraging a responsible use of light.
“As a child, I loved the magic of the night in the countryside. A firefly emitted a delicate glow, creating a spiral of light and fadinglines across the darkening sky. Over time, our street corners became harshly bright. The canvas of darkness that allowed the firefly to paint with light is no longer.Male and female fireflies can no longer see each others’ glow.Their eternal attraction extinguished. Our ambivalent yet wasteful habits of daily life consume massiveamounts of energy and destroy not only small insects… but nature itself. The lesson is clear, a new consciousness towards energy must inspire amore personal and responsible approach to design. Too much light… endangers our life. The firefly returns as inspiration. Introducing a personalized light in whichyou can choose its size and brightness according to your need. Our nightscan be beautiful again while being responsible for the energy we share.”
Here an interesting article explains how artificial light affects the natural system in a very incisive way and underlines once again the importance to fix regulations on this problem.
