Please Touch
Bricks & Lighting
from sddrawings.com
Natural elements in a home are such great materials. Whether it's a brick wall, clay mugs, real wood floors and true cedar siding. We all love "truth" in materials, where the items we surround ourselves with not only look and feel real, though truly are. It has to do with our longing to be closer to the land, closer to the natural environment.
It doesn't take long to compare the differences in houses:
1: A house wrapped in vinyl and simulated wood siding
2: A home with true wood or brick
Truth in materials give us the feeling that our houses are real. That they will be there to stand up to the elements, keeping us warm and safe. Plus, when we see that brick chimney, we know we can touch it and it feels good, like it isn't going to fall over.
But this post is really a study about light and what your Architect or Building Designer can help you obtain using it.
It wasn't long ago that the electric light was created, allowing us to stay up way past sundown. Continuing our lives as if nothing ever changed in the outdoor environment. So we also would design our homes and streestscapes to take advantage of the sun's path across the sky.
One aspect of designing for light was creating homes "one room wide". This allows natural light to infiltrate both sides of a room, taking advantage of the morning sun light and the evening sun light.
Case study in pictures:
The scene is completely the same in both rooms. Though I blew out the lighting in the second picture (over exaggerated with too much light), it's easy to see which room feels less like a cave, and which one also feels more open and livable. Creating rooms we love.
On the left hand side of this Kitchen, you can see the brick wall; feel free to touch. So let us as Designer's help you to understand these types of ideas.
from sddrawings.com
