1. Abstract
The content of this paper illustrates and provides the comparison, as to how the
developing nations, are deviating from their ancient history and
archaeological achievements, in order to ‘please’ and apt for the international
unsustainable building practices.
The intent of this paper is to raise awareness about harnessing of sunlight through
the structural glass facade in modern buildings as compared to the technical marvels
of archaeological built-form of ancient architecture, in India. The historical
architecture exemplifies the appropriate use of sunlight for its lighting, while
molding the building sunshade devices to allow for its shading and anti-glare
properties. The current modern building facades act as a hub of internationally look-
alike ‘glass-clad-robots’ without any consideration to the sun orientation or local
weather conditions or even the cultural and economic preferences of the inhabitants.
Thus, this impacts the psychological, the spacious experience and mental health of
the occupant.
This paper includes the factors and the impacts of daylighting onto the interior
environment as following:
- Upfront engineering of facade based on technical ancient architecture
- Local Climatic conditions and building orientation
- Sociological – Cultural impact
- Psychological impact on inhabitants
- Visual Experience of spaciousness
2. Introduction
“The shadow is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light.” ~ R.D.
Coming from the developing country, India, we are raised acknowledging the bright
surrounding interiors of an enclosure with sunlight imbibing the inside of
the buildings. The comparison is to be made in the lighting achieved by natural
sunlight vs the flooding of the peak sunlight, inside the buildings in the hot humid
and hot arid climate of the parts of the country.
3. Adaptive Daylighting (Sky-lighting and Sun-lighting)
”The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.” ~ Louis Kahn.
Here we show the comparison between these three stages, to provide a report on
how the future buildings can be made with appropriate building material and
orientation sensitive engineering.
Left image: Above suggest that daylight in the room can form the very basis of
creating a room habitable at its first stance. The vivid colors of the sun, the water
and the sky, provide the quality to the interiors of any room, which enhances its
psychological comfort index diversely.
Middle image: Suggests the facade of ancient architecture of Hawa Mahal, Jaipur,
India where the sunshade devices are developed with such precision with the use of
the concept of the ‘jali’ (i.e. lace like fenestration). This makes us wonder if we need
to revive the science required to study the extent of such up-front engineering.
Right Image: In comparison to this the structural glass facade of most of the
buildings in the era of Modern Architecture of India from past 15 to 20 years,
including the upcoming buildings exhibits the use of glass on aluminum panels in all
the directions oblivious of the excruciating sun of the western and southern
orientation.
4. Conclusion
The report provides the analysis made by the case study of various architectural
features of historical buildings in comparison to the psychological and economical
needs of the adequate daylighting in the current scenario, which helps in achieving
the healthy indoor and outdoor responsive architecture, instead of the blatant use of
glass and aluminum facade as the only modern materials of current day.
References:
- JULIAN, WARREN “Lighting: Basic Concepts”, 5th Edition, 1999, Department of Architectural and Design Science, University of Sydney
- BOYCE, P.R. 2003. Human Factors in Lighting, 2nd Ed. New York: Taylor and Francis.
- DAY, CHRISTOPHER Place of the Soul