LIGHT ON ARCHITECTURE: Ancient and Modern

concerns
Monica A. Rivera Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University College of Architecture Studies M.Arch 2 October 26, 2004

Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms. It is of the very nature of the plastic arts. 1 Le Corbusier Light, magic lamp under which things are given form to our eyes, creates space and gives them quality. For all times, light has been a vital matter in architecture, since its absence means blindness to forms. careless use results in low quality of the spaces. blindness, again. Not only its functional quality has been the subject of broad studies for architects and artists, but also its capacity to touch our souls has always intrigued people. Light has the capacity of amaze us, independently from our culture, time or geographic situation. The sun, fierce giver of light and life, was praised by many ancient cultures as the supreme god that reigned over the universe. For the Egyptians, light would be present when the god Ra was looking at his people.
1

Its

Its excess produces

It was the power of his sight that illuminated the

Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. Translated by Frederick Etchells, pp 29 (New York: Dover, 1986)

world. Day and Night would be determined by his desire. For other cultures, such as the Incas, light also associated with the sun, would be related more to nature; therefore, it was very important in their lives as a giver of nourishment, physical and spiritual. We desire light and appreciate it, not only for helping us to understand and perceive the world in which we live, but also because its inspiring capacity awakes us to inner realities. When we contemplate sunset, we can almost touch our ephemeral existence as human beings. From the use of light as an practical element of architecture, it has had the most amazing evolution, not only in its form and the way we obtain it, but also in the effects that it has had in our progress as a civilization. Light modifies the performance of our daily activities, the length of the day, schedules, and our relationship with outdoor spaces. In antiquity, the presence of light was always associated with heat; this concept has changed radically since artificial lighting and acclimatization systems brought false deliriums of the final conquest of architecture and nature. Notice mind. that when Vitruvius makes recommendations about the convenient exposures of rooms in a house, he has more than illumination on Vitruvius is thinking also about the suitable temperature of the
Adjoining it should be the wine room with its windows lighted from the north. In a room with windows on any other quarter so that the sun can heat it, the heat will get into the wine and make it weak. The oil room must be situated so as to get its light from the south and from warm quarters, for oil ought not be chilled, but should be kept thin by gentle heat. Rooms for grain should be set in an elevated position and with a northern or northeastern exposure. Thus the grain will not be able to heat quickly, but, being cooled by the wind, keeps a long time. Other exposures

spaces, depending of the functions of the rooms:

produce the corn weevil and other little creatures that are wont to spoil the grain.2

Vitruvius also expresses his awareness about the changing quality of light and heat during the year and its relation with the use of the different rooms:
Dining rooms for Spring and Autumn to the east; for when the windows face that quarter, the sun, as he goes on his career from over against them to the west, leaves such rooms at the proper temperature at the time when it is customary to use them. Summer dining rooms to the north, because that quarter is not, like the others, burning with heat during the solstice, for the reason that it is unexposed to the suns course, and hence it always keeps cool, and makes the use of the rooms both healthy and agreeable. Similarly with picture galleries, embroiderers work rooms, and painters studios, in order that the fixed light may permit the colours used in their work to last with qualities unchanged. 3

The modern attitude toward light is quite different.

Because of the

modern systems of lighting, heating and cooling, contemporary thought dissociates light from heat, and sometimes even from the sun. The idea of comfort has changed, and modern standards are more precise in terms of levels of light, temperatures and humidity, because modern technology makes it possible to have the same conditions in a room all year round. Advice in technical handbooks includes specific recommendations for each use. Desirable conditions and an acceptable range of variation are given, but the guidelines do not include recommendations about ways to achieve those conditions. It is assumed that the conditioner systems will modify the environment as needed. Regarding the importance of light for the well functioning, health and hygiene on a house, we find similarities with modern thought in the writings
2

Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morris Morgan, Book VI, Chapter VI, 2-4. (New York: Dover, 1960). 3 Ibid, pp180-181

of Le Corbusier. We could say that he and Vitruvius, each one in accordance with his time, share this functionalist concern about light and architecture. In The Manual of the Dwelling, when Le Corbusier makes recommendations about what to demand in a house, with respect to lighting he suggests windows in every room, because a house only is habitable when it is full of light and air.4 He argues against architecture that in name of style has degenerated to a respectful and servile salute to the past, constraining people to all its illnesses. He declares,
A house is a machine for living in. Baths, sun, hot-water, cold-water, warmth at will, conservation of food, hygiene, beauty in the sense of good proportion.5

The impetuous words of Le Corbusier about the new spirit that architecture should have were distorted by practice, giving a paper floor to an architecture, which focused on the function (as a machine) and technology, leaving the human and environmental considerations on the side. He continues his criticism,
Industry, overwhelming us like a flood which rolls on towards its destined end, has furnished us with new tools adapted to this new epoch, animated by the new spirit. If we eliminate from our hearts and minds all dead concepts in regard to the houses and look at the question from a critical and objective point of view, we shall arrive at the House-Machine, the mass-production house, healthy (and morally so too) and beautiful in the same way that the working tools and instruments which accompany our existence are beautiful. 6

Of course this process was encouraged by the times, and the necessity of wide reconstruction of European cities after World War II, which allowed a speedy spread of the spirit. and modernization.
4 5

In Latin-Americans countries, where

reconstruction was not necessary, his approach became symbols of progress More and more, artificial materials were replacing

Le Corbusier Ibid, pp95 6 Ibid, pp227

natural ones, among them light; whose increasingly artificial use significantly reduced our experience of the outdoors. Corbusier writes,
Water supply and lighting services are rapidly being evolved; central heating has begun to take into consideration the structure of walls and windows. Accepted things so far treated as almost unassailable no longer hold their own: roofs which need no longer be pointed for purposes of throwing off water, the enormous and handsome window-embrasures which annoy us since they imprison the light and deprive us of it.7

Delirium for the technology gives us the freedom of designing without the burdens such as location and site restrictions that complicated our free designs. The idea of having power over nature allowed us to build without regard for it , forgetting that man primarily uses materials from nature to build. The product: all purpose buildings without souls, of great international style, as similar as a clone, that cannot touch the people who built them, or touch the people for whom they were built. Promulgated as the architecture of the machine era and industrialization, it was supposed to be the clear result of this spirit. Its form was meant to follow function, with the expression of the new materials. Pure form and honest materials would give beauty. On the way, the result was that any function seemed to fit well to cubic volumes, and from the broad range of materials available, only concrete, glass and steel were valid to express the new spirit. One building, for all nations and climates 8 was the premise, and the main failure, together with the assumption that beauty had the same meaning for all people and cultures. Even third world countries embraced these That these buildings were not architectural forms as symbols of progress.
7 8

Ibid, pp232-233 Le Corbusier, quoted on Leland M. Roth, Understanding Architecture, Hasper-Collins, Colorado, 1993 pp480, from Prcisions sur un tat prsent de larchitecture et de lurbanisme, pp64

suitable for their climates, the costs of the new materials and construction technology were extremely expensive on those countries, and the fact that that architecture had no precedent on their countries, was not even considered. In the following quote, Aalto states a fundamental issue about tradition, new creation, and the correct balance between them to have continuity,
Human life consists, in equal degrees, of tradition and new creation. Traditions cannot be wholly cast off and regarded as used objects, which have to be replaced by something new. necessity.9 In human life continuity is a vital

International Style was built in the same way and with the same ideas for different people, places, customs and necessities, resulting in standardized machines for living or working. Machines as architecture dont fit us as the human beings. Because light and people behave and react differently depending on where they are, architecture should be so too. When you make a building, you make a life. It comes out of life, and you really make a life. It talks to you. When you have only the comprehension of the function of a building, it would not become an environment of a life 10 Great waste of energy and impact on the environment was also one of consequences of a complete reliance on technology, and of the indifference for the relationship between a building and its climatic and environmental setting. Its important to note what the ancients said about this issue. the following way,
If our designs for private houses are to be correct, we must at the outset take note of the countries and climates in which they are built. One style of house seems appropriate to build in Egypt, another in Spain, a

For

example, Vitruvius addressed the relation between place and architecture in

Alvar Aalto, The Architects Conscience, 1957 in Alvar Alto, pp6, (Switzerland, Les Editions dArchitecture Artemis Zurich), 1970. 10 Kahn, Louis, quoted on Leland M. Roth, Understanding Architecture, Hasper-Collins, Colorado, 1993, pp10, from Conversations with Architects, New York, 1973.

different kind in Pontus, one still different in Rome, and so on with lands and countries of other characteristics
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The role of light in architecture is broad.

It ranges from the mere

functional to the extraordinary poetic. Light has been used in architecture to express subtleness as well as to strike with splendor, as a material on architecture, as well as protagonist of it. For the ancients, the most poetic and metaphysical powers of light were reserved for exceptional such tombs, gods.
Reconstruction of The Colonnade of Amenhotep III at the temple of Luxor

buildings, temples for people or very or

as

and

important

The setting of the building would be carefully chosen with regard to the sun. In this matter Vitruvius makes recommendations in the case of temples as follows,
The temple and the statue placed in the cella should face the western quarter of the sky. This will enable those who approach the altar with offerings or sacrifices to face the direction of the sunrise in facing the statue in the temple, and thus those who are undertaking vows look toward the quarter from
11

Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morris Morgan, Book V. Chapter I. 1 (New York: Dover, 1960).

which the sun comes forth, and likewise the statues themselves appear to be coming forth out of the east to look upon them as they pray and sacrifice. 12
Gipsoteca Canoviana, Possagno, Carlo Scarpa, 1955-1957

The modern concep of man with respect to himself has evolved. The power of nature has been extended to our inner realities, so its charms are not reserved for the gods or beings that left, but are part of our delight here at the mundane world. Evocative use of light can be found in buildings with the most trivial uses. There are no mental restrictions for that. A clear and contrasting example of space where light is used in a symbolic way, with respect to the ancients is the museum. Although religious architecture continues to be the most inspiring architecture, new times have witnessed the birth of a new kind temple, one for ourselves, the museum, where man can admire his own creations and where light calls also for a redefinition.

Church of the Light, Osaka, Tadao Ando

At all times, architecture has one meaning when the rational spirit prevails and another when the emotional spirit prevails. In the first case, light is used only as an element to help a function (program element), its action and perception is limited, it doesnt open the place to further interpretations. In the second case, in contrast, light is used as an integral element of the architecture. We would then say that light has become an architectural form or element that interacts with other architectural parts,
12

Ibid, Book IV, Chapter V, 1.

forming a whole, and creating different spatial moments that will activate not only our eyes, but also our feelings and emotions. The best example to illustrate this point is Le Corbusier. His works in the first third of the twentieth century was focused on the pure forms,
Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shape reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image or these is distinct and tangible within us and without ambiguity. It is for that reason It is of the very that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms. Everybody is agreed as to that, the child, the savage and the metaphysician. nature of the plastic arts. 13 The light plays on pure forms, and repays them with interest. Simple masses develop immense surfaces which display themselves with characteristic variety according as it is a question of cupolas, vaulting, cylinders, rectangular prisms or pyramids. Absence of verbosity, good arrangement, a single idea, daring and unity in construction, the use of elementary shapes. A sane morality 14

He is interested in the pure forms. It seems he is thinking more about exterior forms, volumes under the light, not for light striking on, breaking and in any case penetrating these volumes in order to exalt space. 15 In Towards a New Architecture , he addresses the interior light just in terms of quantity and functionality. He emphasizes in the abundance of light that now is possible to get in the spaces through the wall of windows that the new technology of the concrete built:
Reinforced concrete and steel allow of this audacity and lend themselves in particular to a certain development of the faade by means of which all the windows have an uninterrupted view: in this way, in the future, inside courts and wells will no longer exist16

13 14

Le Corbusier. Ibid, pp.158-159. 15 Bruno Zevi, Light as Architectural Form, World Architecture,1994, N.14, pp. 58. 16 Le Corbusier.

shade

For architects: a wall all windows, a saloon full of light. What a contrast with the windows in our houses making holes in the walls and forming and patch of on either side.

His attitude with Ronchamp Chapel cannot be more contrasting.

He

doesnt emphasize rational values, but concentrates more on emotional ones. Every window has been carefully considered, achieving a mystic and exceptional atmosphere inside. Several devices have been used to achieve it. For example on the south side, the massive walls, variable angles of the perforations, and colored glass endow the light with own life. Plummer beautifully describes the work of Le Corbusier on Ronchamp,
In the dim interior, natural light is used not to model the walls, but to corrode and eclipse them. A tall and deliberately distracting fissure is The inserted in the angle between two main walls, just to the right of the altar, prying open the volume, and giving prominence to light above ritual. horizontal crack of light, causing the roof to appear to levitate. ()Through great embrasures in the massive south wall, daylight glances along steeply angled facets, perfuming the chambers with transparent colour, from panes of glass painted by hand with childlike joy (). Each chamber is carved a slightly different shape, and aimed to a different part of upcurving roof is also detached from the walls by what Le Corbusier called a

Henry

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sky, so no two are lit the same, and the sun awakens each in turn to animate the wall with ebbing and flowing colour.17

In Ronchamp, light is not invisible, but has form, depth, and intensity. Here light is an architectural form.

Light in architecture can be an inexhaustible topic, even more so if we pretend to compare it through History. innumerable, and the references too. The power of light for expressing beauty seems to have had more continuity. This fact can suggest that the human necessity for nourishment of spirit, and light as an inspiring means of obtaining this nourishment has not changed. Perhaps our inner sense is the same. It is our outer self that looks to prevail over the world that we inhabit. The false impression that man had mastered nature, leads him to the dissociation from nature and its elements, among them, light. The effects of The points of comparison can be

17

Plummer Hernry, Building with Light, Escala, Anno 35, N.181, 1998, pp53-72

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this attitude have become evident, threatening to give us a stranger and unpredictable world. A new concern about architecture has reborn. New alternatives are being explored looking for an architecture that is more energy-efficient, and responsive to its environment, gentle architecture or green architecture". New tools let us now catch and keep the energy of our turbulent star, but the principle is the same, make maximum use of natural conditions. The idea that the sun can be the provider of light and heat, together as energy, for our buildings seems to fit again on our minds.

Bibliography Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morris Hicky Morgan (New York: Dover, 1960).

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Alberti, Leon Battista. On the Art of Building in Ten Books. Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988).

Lethaby, William Richard.

Architecture, Mysticism and Myth (New

York, Dover Publications, 2004). [republication of the 2nd edition 1892] Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. Translated by Frederick

Etchells (New York: Dover, 1986). Ander Gregg, Daylighting Performance and Design, (New Jersey, Wiley, 2003), Second Edition. Guzowski, Mary. 2000) Leland M. Roth, Understanding Architecture, (Hasper-Collins, Colorado, 1993). Henry Plummer, Building with Light, Escala, Anno 35, N.181, 1998, pp.53-72. Bruno Zevi, Light as Architectural Form, World Architecture, 1994, N.14, pp. 56-59. Daylighting for Sustainable Design, (McGraw-Hill,

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