During the guest lecture by architects from Parabola, we were presented a house which was built to be extremely aware of the path of the sun throughout the year. While all architecture responds to the sun in varying degrees, I found this house to be particularly interesting as the house seemed to act as a sort of sun dial, with the conditions during the solstices and equinoxes deliberately planned and intentional experiences throughout the year. The house reminded me both of some ancient, primitive, hut built towards the sun as the sole way of telling time, as well as the Pantheon of Rome. Today, most architecture deals with how the sun may light spaces throughout the year, but few seem to still use the sun as a method of keeping time. I think this adds an interesting dimension to the architecture of the building, as it seems to cross over the boundary of being simply a space to inhabit. It becomes more than a room, and seems to encourage interaction with the house, and not simply in it.
The method through which Parabola constructed their house for the Living Building Challenge restricted their use of many traditional materials for more environmental friendly or sustainable materials. While there are obvious positives to this, I’m a bit curious about the drawbacks which keep these substitutions from being more widely used.
The NASA headquarters building which they presented was very effective at using daylight to completely light up the workplace. This is a concept that I think more office buildings should use to create a better office environment. I would be interested to see that concept applied in a crowded city, such as New York, where direct sunlight may be more difficult to come by.
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