Harnessing the power of sunlight
Sunlight is an indispensable element of architecture and design. It is essential in making forms and spaces visible. It defines voids and planes, and enables the perception of color, the visual texture of materials and the depth of spaces.
In its most natural state, sunlight renders forms and spaces dynamic: it can modify color hues, suggest movement and create character. As a day unfolds, it transforms the way we experience our environment. More than being an important design element, sunlight establishes our relationship with our surroundings and binds us to the rhythms of night and day, its quality morphing and moving not only with time, but with the cycles and the seasons of the year as well.
Architecture can sit quietly and accept these natural cycles to define and recreate it in so many ways. As the Japanese architect and 1995 Pritzker Prize awardee Tadao Ando stated, “I don’t believe architecture has to speak too much. It should remain silent and let nature in the guise of sunlight and the wind.”
While the role of light as a natural element is much appreciated for its visual impact, the world’s current affair with lockdowns and our instinct of self-preservation have brought our attention to the many benefits of sunlight. It has also made us rediscover and enjoy the socially distant outdoors. More recently, we’ve been experiencing the disadvantages of living within the built environment, and it took something as revolutionary as a pandemic to shake us to reality and force us to re-assess the systems and environs we’ve set in place.
Take for example the high rise office block designed to house workspaces in a controlled setting. It provides thermal comfort and noise control, reduces excessive glare and offers the technical provisions that enable modern day work. It eliminates natural stressors like extreme temperature or humidity, excessive glare, disturbing noise and even undesirable odor.
But this lockedin environment is a self-contained ecosystem that locks us away from the benefits of the outdoors. The functionality of the spaces we create and structures we build can only be successful if they work in symbiotic existence with the natural environment. It’s rather odd or silly to think that we can create an autonomous entity, when everything we utilize to build with is harnessed from the abundance of our natural surroundings. It would be unfair to say that the man-made environment has not served us well, because it does have its many benefits. But perhaps, its greatest disadvantage is that it diminishes the natural rhythms, cycles and stimuli that we, as human beings, need.
As humans, we ourselves are powered by nature. And especially by the sun. Our exposure to sunlight is crucial to our overall health, wellness and survival. Everything that feeds us grows out from the sun’s energies. Nothing else is more powerful.
So lets have a look at what else sunlight does for us:
The quality of light at the different hours of the day creates a variety of experiences. These are largely due to visual and tactile cues, enabling us to see a shift in the color palette of our day and night. This rhythm also enables us to play with artificial lighting, creating theater-like spectacles to enjoy against the dark of the evening.
Despite the changes in spectrum, colors under sunlight are always in their true hues, allowing us to experience them in their purest palette, unlike the distorted color hues that artificial light renders.
The level of brightness within the space also dictates or contributes to the perception of its size. Especially on days like these when most of us are boxed into our homes, a room that is naturally lit looks larger and more spacious. It also looks cleaner, because it likely is. The ultraviolet spectrum wavelengths from sunlight can effectively reduce bacteria, viruses and antigens—or “bio-load”— on surfaces. Sunlight reduces particulate matter like molds or yeast that can cause adverse effects like asthma, allergies and other respiratory irritation.
The most popular benefit of sunlight is its ability to boost the body’s supply of Vitamin D, which is essential for bone health, and of course, as we all now know, for enhancing our immune system to fight off bacteria and viruses.
The sunlight of mid-morning carries more “blue light” spectrum, which triggers the production of cortisol, the hormone that increases glucose in your bloodstream and prepares you for the day. It also tells your body to halt the production of melatonin, which is the hormone that helps you sleep. It regulates your sleep-wake cycle.
The lack of exposure to sunlight can also cause a drop in serotonin levels. Serotonin is the hormone considered to be a mood stabilizer, and also helps in the patterns of eating, digestion and sleeping. It reduces depression and anxiety, the lack of it being the cause of “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” a kind depression that affects people who live in places with minimal sunlight.
While too much sunlight may also have its disadvantages, they are problems that are easier to work around but we would need a separate discussion for that. For now, my wish is that building owners consider more seriously the modification of fixed windows to allow more air and sunlight through. Or perhaps provide more sky gardens, decks or balconies for a respite from artificial environments. It would be nice to feel the breezes blow once in a while.
It’s the peak of summer, and while you probably want to keep the glare out, please consider some light window curtains or screens, apply your sunblock, open your windows and fully reap the free benefits of sunlight—for a healthy, happy and well summer, and thereafter!