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Providing Natural Light to an underground floor: ideas?

todd

Anyone have any experience in providing natural light to an underground floor? If you have 8'-4" tall windows on the 1st level, how wide of an offset would you need to create(1'6" or more) to allow that light to penetrate in the underground spaces? Im sure you could slope the wall to help direct the natural light but how effective will it really be? I posted a pdf of the cross section at http://plaza.ufl.edu/ktw/

the xsection.pdf file.

any input welcomed and experience with a problem in simlar nature.

todd

 
Oct 19, 06 5:34 pm
mdler

look at the Folk Art Museum by Tod Williams Billie Tsien...or solartubes

Oct 19, 06 8:33 pm  · 
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strlt_typ

if you're trying to get an idea of how the light might look on what you have now...check out Holl's St. Ignatius.

in gehry's bank in berlin, there's glass (translucent?) on the floor to allow light to the space below...



Oct 19, 06 8:50 pm  · 
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treekiller

dig a hole.

or read malcolm wells

Oct 19, 06 9:14 pm  · 
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weAREtheSTONES

mirrors

Oct 19, 06 11:16 pm  · 
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punky_brewster

and smoke. smoke and mirrors. if they don't know they're in a dungeon, they won't think it so bad.

Oct 19, 06 11:47 pm  · 
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binary

you talking beer right?...natural light?


the question is not how to get light in.....but how to get darkness out.... just a diferent mindset

b

Oct 20, 06 12:05 am  · 
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mespellrong

The Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago by Rafael Viñoly. THe basement level is the primary classroom area, topped above by the four story winter garden. It's almost as personal as an airport by Helmut Jhan.

Oct 20, 06 12:33 am  · 
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upside

diddn't jean nouvel do an underground resturant in paris with mirrors to deflect light? real early 90's opulence and shit.

or have i just had too much to drink on friday lunch?

Oct 20, 06 3:10 am  · 
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snooker

A great example of daylighting with Mirrors: Will Bruders Downtown Phoenix Arizona Public Library Great Reading Room. It isn't below ground but he did use daylighting to eliminate the need for alot
of electrical lighting by use of mirrors which track the sun.

Oct 20, 06 9:35 am  · 
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mces

if you would like to know how effective it is, you might need to run lighting simulation, such as lightscape or radiance, justify your design and get daylight factors value. You might look from another design but definitely, you need to test whether it will work in your case (location, orientation, sunpath, material reflactance, etc.)
just my 2 cents

e

Oct 20, 06 10:20 am  · 
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mdler

lasers

Oct 20, 06 12:49 pm  · 
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PerCorell

Hi

I lived on house boats where the only daylight would enter a skylight , guess a top "window" allow very very much more light acturly ,a fairly small --- just 35 Cm by 10 Cm. prisme shaped deck glass fitting, will allow more than you ever expect , so much for design students know-how.
On a fairly big house boat, you would look for a few square meterd skylight to fase enough light but true, knowing that will not alway's profit architecture.

Oct 20, 06 1:04 pm  · 
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garpike

Ha ha ha ha. Mdler.

Oct 20, 06 1:05 pm  · 
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PerCorell

Light have properties that can be shapen -- if you have ever played with light, bringing surface light to whatever sub space is just another great challance, --- but if you don't even know how much light, can enter thru a simple deck fitting then, where will that end ? a basic knowleage about light ,lenses and prisms ,will bring numourous "new" and challencing solutions to this old challance ----- what about a better challance ; bring cheap strong ,digital projected houses ?

Oct 20, 06 1:13 pm  · 
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PerCorell

Sorry forgot ;

http://arch.designcommunity.com/topic-10104.html

Oct 20, 06 1:14 pm  · 
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brian buchalski

can't believe that no one has mention gunnar birkerts law library addition in ann arbor yet

Oct 20, 06 1:31 pm  · 
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mdler

cute hipster girls w/ glow sticks

Oct 20, 06 3:31 pm  · 
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24-7tecture

Figure out the solar orientation to this building, than find out the solar angles and see how far the sun light will come into the space (if this façade faces the sun???). Based on that info you can play with the section more to determine the offset.

Oct 21, 06 2:20 am  · 
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khmay

damn i thought this was about cheap beer

Oct 21, 06 2:26 am  · 
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well, if this was about cheap beer, the answer would be 'keg-erator'.

there's one in the house we just bought. an old rusted kelvinator refrigerator with holes drilled in the side, hooked up to the beer taps on the built-in barnwood bar and the co2 canister in the back. that'll deliver the natural light to the basement for ya.

(on my list as part of the restoration, you betcha.)

Oct 21, 06 7:48 am  · 
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e909

"cute hipster girls w/ glow sticks"
aren't candles more romantic? hope the sticks go dim soon.

or import a sun.
---------
isn't the goal to avoid getting too much light during some time of a day in some season? you'll be adding light during other times. and that's when you don't want to be losing light out through your "in ports".

recover some of teh consrtuctoin cost by leasing the room for windex ads.

Oct 23, 06 4:20 am  · 
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FOG Lite

Cute hipster girls wouldn't be caught dead using a candle. Glow sticks have that sly irony they love.

Oct 23, 06 9:37 am  · 
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cf

fiber optics

Oct 23, 06 9:41 am  · 
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treekiller

glow sticks????? I though gen nexters only used cellphones - not glow sticks or lighters....

Oct 23, 06 10:25 am  · 
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French

I remember a post on the news a few years ago here on archinect, presenting a swedish firm that was producing a sort of ceiling suspension connected to solar panels on the roof of the building that was simulating a skydome effect, suposedly bringing directly the light from the sun through wires instead of holes...

Oct 23, 06 10:38 am  · 
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French

Oh and the Nouvel restaurant is in Lucerne, part of a small luxury hotel humbly called "the hotel".

Oct 23, 06 10:39 am  · 
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cf

Fenetre Eclaire (fiber optics)
similar but opposite to porte dela morte

Oct 23, 06 11:05 am  · 
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mdler
Oct 23, 06 3:54 pm  · 
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