Daylight Design Idea Drives Contemporary Home Interior
Daylighting a house or home is more than just a matter of bringing in functional light to illuminate interior spaces – it can also play a critical role in the architectural design of places, shaping and defining them as much as walls, floors and ceiling do. The dynamic interiors of this Japanese house by Nakayama Architects are as much a series of artistic experiments that shift in light, tone and color in a new way each day as they are naturally and artificially lit volumes to be lived in.
In one room the theme is that of diffuse, soft and variegated light – a giant set of small openings let in crisscrossing rays that speckle the entire interior of this living space. Juxtaposed in the image right below is almost the exact opposite approach, a single picture window framing the exterior landscape and the interior light that comes in as direct, harsh and unfiltered and is then bounced off a series of alternating wall panels. The strategies in each case revolve around architectural lighting as opposed to desk, table or floor lamp designs.
In yet other spaces, multiple lighting strategies come together to work with layouts that transition from the inside to the outside of the home, using exterior natural light as well as artificial interior lamps to bridge between landscape, deck and living/dining spaces indoors.
Throughout the house in the circulation spaces (halls, stairways and so on) there are fascinating points of transition where the focus shifts from one strategy to another must as the architectural layout and materiality changes from one space to the next.
