Project Description
Land of The Sun The blocks around The Hui People Street in Xi 'an were originally densely covered with traditional Chinese courtyard houses. However, because the historic blocks were not well protected,the local residents builded and renovated their houses randomly with little restriction. What used to be a traditonal Chinese courtyard house has gradually become a narrow lane, a dark place lacking sunshine. This leads to depression and increased stress among long-time residents. Besides, dark corners are easy to breed crime.And the dark places also make a bad impression on the tourists. In order to recreate the city's memory and give it some life and vitality, we designed this installation to solve the lighting problem of alleyways. The concept of land of the Sun comes from the Ancient Chinese book Zhou Yi. Ancient people used the philosophy of "Yin and Yang" in Zhou Yi to classify the light environment of Ancient Chinese buildings. According to the book, "Yang means brightness.It usually refers to the north bank of a river and the south side of a mountain range.Yin, meaning darkness, usually refers to the south bank of a river and the north side of a mountain range." The ancients said that in traditional Chinese architecture, the courtyard is" the land of Tai Yang" , which means the brightest place in the building,and can also be regarded as Land of the Sun. The shape of the device is derived from the roof form ''Si Shui Gui Tang''of the traditional Chinese courtyard houses. How it works: We refer to the design of Fresnel Concentrating Optical System.By using a glass Fresnel lens and a total reflection light funnel, we concentrate the light that would otherwise be staying at the top of the alley into a beam of light that would reach deep into the alley. The device is made of recyclable materials such as glass and aluminum, which are relatively inexpensive. The size of the light funnel can be determined according to the actual situation. According to the calculation, quadrilateral should be adopted for the upper and lower bottom surfaces of the device in order to achieve better concentrating effect.and the Angle between the tilted aluminum plate and the horizontal surface should be adopted between 45°and 73°.The Angle range is calculated based on the highest and lowest solar altitude angles in Xi 'an. There are alleys of different sizes and conditions in the block.We expanded the function of the device according to the specific situation. Many of the houses have doors in narrow alleys, dark and depressing.We kept half of the device and placed it on the gate, and used the light from the top device to form a foyer in the alley, enhancing the residents' sense of security and ritual at home. Alley size: Width3100 Extended application: Communication space The site is a high-density residential area. In the field investigation, it was found that residents would stand and chat in some alleys or roadside. But with no place to rest, they often end in a hurry.Therefore, we combine the device with the rest space in the alley to provide a small communication space for nearby residents. size: 4300Extended applications: Public Spaces Some of the alleys are dead ends.Since these alleys are usually dark, the crime rate will increase in these places away from people's sight. We believe that light and people should be led into these Spaces to increase the security of residents. At the end of the alley, public Spaces are designed to accommodate many people.So we can evoke memories of traditional courtyard life. 2400 Width of roadway: 2400Extended application: Shading from the rain In the commercial street of Hui People Street, People use plastic canopies to keep out the sun and rain.But it also caused a widespread shortage of light .Secondly, the Hui People Street was the tourism representative area of Xi 'an.But residents have built their own homes that spoil the atmosphere of the historic district We want to replace these awnings with devices.On the one hand, keep the original function.On the other hand, we can change the overall appearance of the block.