The single-story house in a residential area has an interior space where sunlight and artificial lighting produce various scenes throughout the day, and the changes and contrast of lights can be enjoyed. The lighting consists of a minimum number of elements, which purely complement the architectural design. A combination of lights is changeable using a leading-edge scene control system, achieving the scenes tailored to the time of day. This project proved that synergistic effect of sunlight and artificial lighting could bring about a fulfilling living space filled with changing lights even if the number and areas of rooms are limited.
The first you see when entering from the outdoors is the courtyard, which is clockwise surrounded by the approach, main entrance, living/dining/kitchen room, study, bedroom, and other rooms.
The living/dining/kitchen room, the main space, continues to the courtyard beyond the glass on the same floor level as the finished floor level of the room in terms of architectural design. There is a small Japanese-style room separated by a shoji screen beyond the room. The living/dining/kitchen room is covered by a chevron-shaped sloped wooden louvered ceiling, topped with a skylight showing the changes in sunlight. Stable and soft natural light is guided into the room on sunny days. The changes in sunlight can be enjoyed depending on the season, time of day, and weather.
The artificial lighting of the living/dining/kitchen room consists of a minimum number of elements: indirect lighting, one dining pendant light, and one kitchen spot light, which purely complement the architectural design. Line lighting dimmable with variable color temperature is used for the indirect wall and ceiling lighting. A daytime scene with 4000K color temperature is preset for the time when the screen near the window is lowered or for cloudy days. An evening scene with natural light remaining in the courtyard is set to a scene with 3000K colour temperature focused on the indirect wall lighting, where you can enjoy scenery with inside and outside lights blended beautifully.
When there is no natural light late at night, the scene changes to the one focused on the indirect ceiling lighting with a color temperature further lowered to 2700K, where the rooms’ brightness can be felt beyond the glass even at night, with reflection on glass minimized. On a nice day, it is comfortable to relax, surrounded by beautiful lights, in the courtyard.
Furthermore, a special Japanese-style room scene is preset. Since the indirect wall lighting system for the living/dining/kitchen room is separated at the shoji screen position of the Japanese-style room, it is possible to turn on only the indirect lighting of the Japanese-style room and achieve functional brightness for the room while minimizing energy waste. When the room is seen from outside the shoji, the entire shoji shines softly like a huge paper lantern, which serves as an outdoor road light. There is also an amplification effect due to reflection on glass. This beautiful light/shadow contrast is an impressive scene that is perfect to end the day.
