Revolutionary Daylight Machines on Exhibition
Can daylight be regarded as a building material? 11 daylight machines have been put into use to research the question and challenge our understanding and percep-tion of daylight and space – and thereby architectural conventions.
The 11 pieces of work, known collectively as The Stubbornness of Architecture, from Arkitektur- og Designhøgskolen in Oslo are now to be exhibited at VELUX in Hørsholm.
In the spring of 2004, the students in Department B3 at Arkitektur- og Designhøgskolen in Oslo (AHO) raised an important question: can daylight be used as an architectural material? 11 students designed a number of very different spaces and daylight machines that all cap-ture, transform and make use of daylight in a new and revolutionary way.
Architecture and architectural research are more searching now than they have ever been. The traditional and evolutionary development of architecture is being eroded. Instead it is being driven increasingly by architectural quantum leaps in which new knowledge, technol-ogy and holistic thinking, all interconnected in a web-like network, are generating new ways of looking at daylight and our spatial perception.
The daylight machines are making an important contribution to the debate. Instead of al-lowing daylight to take form on a particular material, it is now captured in a machine that transforms and conducts it as an architectural material in its own right – and challenges our traditional perception of a space.
"Daylight has greater architectural potential than we are seeing today. It can be regarded as an architectural material in its own right, a material with its own dimensions and the abil-ity to build bridges in architecture. We are delighted, and very proud, to be able to present these unique daylight machines here in VELUX," says Michael K. Rasmussen of VELUX A/S.
"Daylight has a vital role to play in achieving healthy and comfortable homes. At a time when demands for energy efficiency are on the increase, it is also becoming more essential for the importance of light to be regarded as part and parcel of architecture. This is part of the Sustainable Living concept that VELUX is developing to pass on to legislators and deci-sion-makers to the benefit of people."
Today, daylight is an active and integrated part of the syllabus not only at Arkitektur- og Designhøgskolen in Oslo but at many schools of architecture around the world.
The media have been invited to the opening of the exhibition The Stubbornness of Architecture on Tuesday 11 December at 15.30 at VELUX A/S' head office at Ådalsvej 99 in Hørsholm. Photos will be made available afterwards.
VELUX has displayed the 11 spectacular machines so as to give all interested parties the opportunity to experience the magic for themselves. The exhibition will be opened by pro-fessors Rolf Gerstlauer and Per Olaf Fjeld of Arkitektur- og Designhøgskolen in Oslo.