Hallowed Light
This project was created in the Visual Literacy & Design Studio (DEA 1101) in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis. Our challenge was to recreate the lighting effect of a famous architectural design. I chose to emulate The Esplanade Theaters on the Bay by Michael Wilford in Singapore.
The lighting effect of my design is called “biomimetic shading,” which is the method by which the building imitates patterns in nature to provide its unique shape.
When designing the theater, Michael Wilford took into consideration the context of its tropical environment. Situated near the equator, Singapore experiences an abundance of sunlight exposure and heat radiation throughout the year, so the building uses glass as a primary material to keep the interior cool. These outer facades also serve to exploit scenic views from the interior.
The Esplanade Theater uses two levels of shading: The first is an external skin that is responsive to lighting in that it has triangular louvers that adjust during the day according to the sun’s angle and position. The second is a secondary lattice that has folded sunshades which also transform in shape and orientation throughout the day. Since the original building resembles a sphere, its surface comes into contact with light in all directions regardless of its orientation.
Unlike the original design, the form of this design is a triangular prism. One face represents a segment of the Esplanade’s spiked surface, while the other two faces represent the floor and the wall of the building. While this design emulates the original triangular tessellating pattern of the Esplanade for the design of its lattice, it is modified to be linear instead of curvilinear due to the material limitations of basswood.
This structure is designed so that at a solar elevation or altitude of 30 degrees, the sun will project light onto the wooden face and project a shadow that is equally distributed on the wall and the floor. My prediction of this synchronicity is indicated by the two basswood sticks laid out diagonally on the ceiling and floor, which will only align with the shadows at an altitude of 30 degrees.
The lighting effect was intended to occur on the date October 12, 2002, which is the day that the theater opened. Using the sun path of Singapore, I chose the time at which the altitude would be approximately 30 degrees on that particular date and worked in reverse to determine the time at which it would occur, 4:50 pm.
Since the original building is a dome-like shape, the sun will hit its surface equally at any time. But in this structure, the building is in the shape of a triangular prism, so it needs to be oriented at an azimuth of approximately 260 degrees to get direct sunlight and maximize light exposure on the spiked surface of the prism.
Thus, when the sun hits this model on October 12, 2002 at exactly 4:50 pm, the sun will be located at an azimuth of 260 degrees and altitude of 60 degrees, light will enter through the slits of the triangular lattices and form shadows aligning with the pattern created on two faces of the structure — The wall and the floor.