Projects
Jill Enwistle explores a selection of lighting projects for people with special needs.
The Screen, Kyoto, Japan
Design and lighting: Kubo Tsushima Architects
THE SCREEN, a boutique hotel in Kyoto, has recently been renovated with all 13 rooms given individual interior treatments. Kubo Tsushima designed two rooms, whose central features are inspired by natural light rhythms – one which evokes a waxing and waning moon, and a second space that suggests early morning light.
The first space, on the first floor, only had one narrow window facing a courtyard. Unable to bring additional light into the space from outside, the designers instead suggested it by carving a circular light fixture into the wall. The control system is essential for the effect. When the light level is higher, the engraved lighting fixture appears like a full moon, gradually changing to a crescent moon when the amount of light is reduced with the dimmer control.
Despite being a boutique hotel with only 13 rooms, The Screen has effectively renovated its offering to include rooms with designs that reflect the waxing and waning of natural light rhythms.
‘The corners of the walls and ceiling were rounded off with plaster,’ says Yumi Tsushima. ‘In this secluded environment that feels as though you are inside the earth – the dimming functions of the light dramatically changes how the light spreads, as well as the mood of the entire room.’
A core aim of the design was to create an interior that was ‘not simply prone to changes in short-term trends’, says Tsushima. ‘We strove to explore ornamentation as not just a means of decorating through a combination of different materials. Our attempt involved taking the function of dimming lights, which are almost always incorporated in hotel guest rooms, and ornamentalising it. The design team made dimming the lights – usually a mundane action – an experience to be remembered.’
Despite being a boutique hotel with only 13 rooms, The Screen has effectively renovated its offering to include rooms with designs that reflect the waxing and waning of natural light rhythms.
For the fourth-floor room, which features a large window overlooking the city where morning sunlight streams in, the aim of the effect was early morning light shrouded in mist. A green carpet is designed to be reminiscent of a grassy plain. Where it joins the walls, the vertical surface has been painted in a gradation of green to white, evoking the image of being in the middle of a misty field.
Despite being a boutique hotel with only 13 rooms, The Screen has effectively renovated its offering to include rooms with designs that reflect the waxing and waning of natural light rhythms.
The entire space has rounded walls that conceal the existence of columns and beams. ‘We formed a slit between the ceiling and the wall, in which we inserted indirect lighting that brings to mind the light of the morning sun,’ explains Tsushima. ‘The sharp, bright light of dawn shines in on a faintly blurred image of a grassy plain, creating a special passage of pure, morning time, quietly enveloped in a deep fog. It is a dim, hazy scene with no defined edges.’ www.kbtsm.com/en
Maisons de Verre, Carantec, Brittany
Architect and lighting Odile Decq
THE PRIMARY DESIGN concerns when it comes to the relationship between light and the human visual system are generally the avoidance of glare and providing sufficient illumination to accomplish a task. But what if the client in question has a very particular visual impairment?
The light diffusion effect is enhanced by the parallelepiped-shaped structure of the house
French architect Odile Decq was faced with this proposition when designing a house in Carantec, Brittany, for a client who can only see vague shapes because of a progressive sight loss condition. At his request, the light had to be homogeneous throughout and without glare to optimise his ability to see.
Her response to the brief was to design a house with walls of translucent glass. They comprise double panels of light-diffusing, insulating glass (Okalux K) with a 15cm gap through which the metal structural grid passes, rendered invisible. The textile tile included in its cavity allows shadowless lighting, with daylight penetrating deeply into the spaces. ‘Entirely made of glass, the house is a box of natural light,’ says Decq.
The effect is enhanced by the shape of the structure, a tilted parallelepiped – all of the elevations are parallelograms – which is dissected by two linear volumes of black glass. These house practical areas such as bathrooms, storage and kitchen.
Decq’s design incorporates artificial lighting to create a homogenous cocoon of light
‘The tilted shape allowed for the optimisation of the orientation of the glazed surfaces on the roof,’ explains Decq. ‘The complete translucency of the walls, facades and roof creates a singular phenomenon inside, a homogeneous and identical light at all points, an impression of a cocoon.’ Only a few small windows located at low level remain transparent and allow a close view of the surrounding garden.
The artificial lighting has been designed to create the same homogeneity with translucent pendants attached to the roof structure, complemented by a series of peripheral spotlights. ‘When night falls, the house lights up like a lantern, emitting a soft and diffuse light,’ says Decq. www.odiledecq.com
Suppliers
Clear glass and glass stairs
Firman
Capillary daylighting pannels
Okalux
Lighting
iGuzzini
