The course introduces the culture of daylight both as an expressive device, and as a technical tool for a sustainable design approach. Artificial light is presented not as an independent topic, but both in its integration with daylight and its increasing capacity as a key component for a positive impact on human well-being. Alongside these studies, the course encompasses a full programme of lectures, seminars and conferences, delivered by a varied body of experts and professionals. more >
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TVZEB is the new zero energy building currently under construction in the hills surrounding Vicenza. The building will serve as a new studio for the Traverso-Vighy team, and will be the first zero energy building in the Veneto region of Italy. The project is a prototype, an experiment in sustainable design, and as such is making a new voyage into the difficulties, possibilities and opportunities of creating a passive building.
The shape and orientation of the building have been carefully designed to make the most of the solar cycle, benefitting from the warmth of the sun’s rays in the winter when the position of the sun in the sky means that they reach the internal environment, while simultaneously protecting the environment from over-heating during the summer months by providing shielding from the summer incidence of the rays.
The building is also dependent on the sun for the majority of its energy requirements. The roof of the smaller of the two building blocks is lined with photovoltaic panels, which produce all the electricity the building needs to be self-sufficient. This system is supported by a geothermal heat pump and a wood burning stove, which satisfy the building’s heating requirements.
Even the interior lighting of the building is designed to meet the demands of sustainability, both in terms of the amount of electricity consumed, and the welfare of the building users. LED bar lights, developed by Coemar specifically for TVzeb, project light onto the aluminium mesh walls, giving a general illumination to the inside space. The inner artificial lighting will continuously vary in quality and colour, as in natural light, and will be supported by a system of task lighting at the work tables.
The project is based on the design concept by Zurich-based Weber + Hofer and then it was implemented by Kaufmann / Partner setting new criteria for the use of renewable energy forms. Daylight design is by Dr. Helmut Koester.
The building is a slim 70 m-high structure with a two-storey surrounding base; it is a pilot project as the high-rise office building was built with passive-house characteristics. ThePowerToweris not dependent of fossil fuels. The energy is obtained through the soil and the ground water, and/or generated by the solar panels that are integrated into the façade.
The façade is designed so that the 90% of the solar heat remains outside the building (two thirds of it is composed of transparent glazing), therefore it was not necessary to install a conventional air-conditioning system. The building envelope was specially engineered to allow maximum day lighting while minimizing solar gain.
The envelope is nearly airtight and extremely insulating. The windows are quadruple glazed, and contain integrated operable reflective louvers which allow office occupants to control the solar gain of their individual spaces. Blinds have a micropiramids structure to provide maximum protection from the sun but still allow daylight in and enable people to see out.
The south facing facade is largely composed of 700 m^2 of photovoltaic solar panels, which generate roughly 42 megawatt-hours of electricity each year, providing for much of the building’s energy demands.
posted by Giovanni Traverso & Paola Vighy
We recently had an interesting conversation with Giulio Ponti, the youngest son of Gio Ponti (1891-1979), who was one of the most prolific and accomplished Italian architects of the twentieth-century.
We were having lunch together and he started speaking in such an enthusiastic way about one of his father’s last projects: the construction of the Taranto Cathedral.
The most interesting feature of the cathedral is a 53m “veil” that tops the church, a high perforated façade open to the sky.
“A wall that is full yet perforated from both sides by the wind, extraordinarily iridescent with both reflecting and direct rays of sunlight, with shadow and with very slight chiaroscuro effects. It seems as if the clouds get caught on it. It is matter that finds pleasure in rising up to the heavens, conscious of its fortunate transfiguration.”
- Luigi Moretti, Domus, 1971
Gio Ponti himself used to say: “the true tradition is manifested in bold modernity”, and held true to this principle through his study of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque churches, where light penetrates the interior through the opening of the dome.
The bold architecture of the Taranto Cathedral expresses an intense connection with the Mediterranean natural environment, made of sea, sun and mutable light. Its white interior is an ever-changing canvas, subtly altering with the movement of the sun throughout the day, leading Luigi Moretti to state: “..its inner structure, made of impalpable matter, is a fleeting yet visible condensation of sky.”
The gardens of the Biennale, the International Art Exhibition first held in 1895, are the set of several pavilions built in various periods by the exhibiting countries. In 1955 the Contemporary Art Association of Helsinki commissioned Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) with the design of a small temporary pavilion for Finnish exhibits, while waiting for a Nordic Countries Pavilion. 
Courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture (Suomen rakennustaiteen museo)
The pavilion was prefabricated in Finland and assembled in Venice, and in some way the concept reminds of a Sámi tent. It is a wedge-shaped timber structure, which was assembled of light, dismountable wall and roof units. The walls of vertical panels are sustained by the three triangular struts with apex downwards. The roof and the lightning are ingenious: a double screened skylight gives light to the side walls leaving the central area of the pavilion in the half light. The blue and white wooden structure, that was supposed to be temporary for one exhibition only, it has remained immovably in place since the summer of 1956. The indoor space is enhanced by the light coming from the system of longitudinal ‘lock’ skylights, a system that Aalto then developed on the exhibition spaces of Aalborg Museum which feature a structure of white hulls suspended inside the glazed skylights
Architectural objects are developed and designed in light terms and daylight is becoming a real part of architecture, instead of a tectonic vision of building construction.
Hence, materials properties play a central role and set a new relation with light. These interactions depend both on the nature of the light (its wavelength, frequency, energy, etc.) and the nature of the material.
I decided to explore “the transparency “ with a group of my students. Transparency is a fascinating subject suspended between vacuum and material, light and architecture.
We decided to study the transparency for architectural purpose, starting from its physical definition and exploring the different properties in architectural use.
Students studied the properties of transparency in common objects and materials, such as ice, leaves, liquids, fabric or nets.
We classified different “architectonic” characteristics of transparency and we analyzed how transparency in a building changes in different lighting and visual conditions: solid transparency, for example is when a solid material is perforated and changes with viewing angle and material thickness; light transparency when a material is transparent to light; and visual transparency, when a material is transparent to light and allows a view through it.
posted by Giovanni Traverso
Francesco Venezia is a significant and original contemporary Italian architect: his work and research plays with the presence of natural light and its interplay with darkness. His space for the Material Testing Laboratory, where the University does research and studies full-scale structures with static and dynamic tests, looks like a big cubic box without windows. The internal space is modulated by the natural light which enters from below, through a long narrow opening on the building’s perimeter, and from above, through a series of skylights, creating an atmosphere of suspense and immobility.
The building has been conceived as a shell protecting a central nucleus with the industrial ‘bridge crane’ supported by two rows of pilasters. Daylight, entering from above using a series of smaller skylights surrounding the large one on the main space, defines the space and plays with rough surfaces.The original and innovative use of materials have a vital intensity due to the use of daylighting.
drawing source: archisquare.it
