Project Description
Many studies have shown how important direct sunlight is for human condition. The average person spends the majority of their time in closed areas, be it at home or at work, where sun exposure is often limited. As Le Corbusier said – ‘Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light’.Sunlight defines the architectural shape as well as function and sustainability. Even though the amount of sunlight that should be received by each room is strictly regulated, it’s not always easily achievable, especially in densely covered historical districts or ever-growing centers of modern cities, living in shadows of giant skyscrapers. Our idea attempts to give shaded areas a glimpse of that precious sunlight – especially to the ground floors of buildings in a highly dense urban environment. The urban grid generates plenty of spaces with excess amounts of sunlight, like parks and squares, sometimes even forcing people to use natural or artificial shading mechanisms. Modern technology allows us to manipulate that excesssunlight, redirecting it right into places it actually needs to be. We want to achieve that by using a simple system of placing mirror-like surfaces, merged together with street furniture. The mirrors would be controlled by software, reflecting direct sunlight into shaded, underexposed areas. Each piece of the system would be able to catch and redistribute sunlight on to the other mirrors, allowing them to work continuously as the sun changes its position.To avoid overheating and at the same time to increase the appeal of the mirrors topedestrians, each unit in the system would be connected to running water.The flow of the liquid down the mirror surface will not only cool it down, but also soften the reflected sunrays, spreading them more evenly over the shaded areas.