[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation=”top-to-bottom”]What makes an object appear three dimensional is the light and the time (or the movement). The great master Leonardo Da Vinci has been spending hours and hours in sketching a single drapery, changing each time only the lighting setup in order to study how it was sculpting the object. Since architects have been designing royal residential houses and religious temples for many centuries, they were able to develop techniques for using the natural light to create mystical, monumental and ritual atmospheres.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Nowadays the profession is involved in dwelling for a wider circle of users but some architectural qualities like introducing light as an artistic or more pleasing expression in the everyday life is still considered exceptional. Architect Duncan McLeod is one of those enthusiasts who takes the matter into the next level using the light, as he puts it, as a building material.
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His work is based on that fascination for the old sacral architectural gestures, which he applies in his projects. With his skilled manners, he directs the light into unexpected directions and thus, he gives the surfaces a very different appearance.
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The artist Olafur Eliasson suggests another interesting approach. Along with the light, he considers the movement in time and the human experience and adds elements to provoke participation. What happens then is that when entering such space, our bodies start to recognize speed, scale, changes of lighting conditions, etc., which directly influence our emotions and state of mind. Working with these elements Eliasson makes the spaces tangible. One step further from that is emphasising the notion of realizing the meaning of our own presence in a given space. We are able to change it as we move through it.
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At the limit of what is real and what is imagination, the light let alone can create a space of its own. “Arcades” by the London based artists Troika is a project inspired by this idea. Bent light rays are so unusual in nature that the result looks mystical and beyond the realm of possibility. At the same time, put in a dark environment the boundaries are easily distinguishable as like the light is a surface itself.
While designing any structure, we hinder the free access of the light within it. To control the way the light rays reach the hard surfaces both inside and outside is just as an important part of creating a quality in the everyday life as is the geometrical form itself. Sculpting the light through the surfaces, provoking participation and creating boundaries through light are just three ways to use light to shape the world around us creatively.
