Research into the sensitivity of Dutch light
Catching light as a material to see the place
L. Varossieau (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Pietsch – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
M. Parravicini – Mentor (TU Delft - Building Design & Technology)
M.G. Vink – Mentor (TU Delft - History, Form & Aesthetics)
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Abstract
Light touches, but is untouchable itself. While being airy and ethereal, light is grounded in architecture: it plays a fundamental role in the experience of touching and tender spaces. However, catching light in terms of contrast, light diagrams and simulations models doesn’t reach the
complexity of light, the moment when light touches us. Truly understanding daylight is a matter of grasping light in its subtle, fleeting, ephemeral experiential reality. Therefore this project is a search for sensitivity to light, in particular Dutch coastal light. It does so by asking the question:
- How is light a material?
Materialization of light was researched in different ways. Firstly, using philosophy. Secondly, using artistic references. Thirdly, by making photos of light and form experiments at the Dutch coast. The architectural design project functioned as the last entry into the search for sensitivity to Dutch light, this time through the eyes of the architect specifically. The choice of location based on presence of Dutch light: Vluchthaven at Neeltje Jans, a peripheral place which radiates light and where big natural forces interfere with huge human interventions.
The research showed how light is able to both make people turn inwards, towards their own internal world, and outwards, towards the external world. The changing between those processes is admirable because it creates a sensitivity for what is outside, while at the same time it addresses imagination for potential change of reality. Light makes people see. Therefore, the design project worked with light to make experiences of introversion and extraversion, in the Dutch light. Four ateliers were designed, which address light in different manners, and one dwelling for an artist in residence, the caretaker of the ateliers. Visitors experience the light at the place, to see the place even better.
By defining, describing, and contextualising light, the project materialized light. But overly describing how light is situated, kills light vibrancy. Therefore, to use light as a material it is also important to admit its volatile character, by not catching it. It is within the associative, the intuitive, the imaginative where light is able to move. The method of artistic research, including the act of experiencing light, gave space to both processes to be able to materialize light: making light explicit and leaving light implicit.