Daylighting as Media: From Illusion in Chinese Gardens to Space in Modern Architecture

Abstract

The intention of this thesis is to evaluate whether daylighting can be a media leading traditional concepts into today’s architectural design. Daylighting as a media not only an essential visual element in consisting impression of architecture, but also a significant method to generate experience through architecture. The Chinese garden as a special Chinese traditional Cultural signal is deeply related with Chinese ancient philosophy, paintings, poems and gentleman-scholars’ dream. The philosophy of Taoism emphasizes the importance of combination human and nature, which generates primeval idea of natural ecology. Daylighting in Chinese garden also presents the same idea by complex consequence and multiple layers, different forms and arrangements. The concepts which is full of narrative experience and idea of ecologies is worth researching and integrating in modern architecture. This essay studies Chinese gardens, paintings and poems and proves that a Chinese garden uses the four means, which are imitating large scale and merging geometry, controlling features in time and seasons, continuously framing views, and design of consequence in emotion by daylighting to frame traditional mind. The modern architectural cases which contain the similar meaning are talked. The possibility and occasions that daylighting can be a media transferring traditional concepts into modern space are evaluated, which includes transformed from a Chinese garden, integrated with modernism, co-incident techniques usage and the limits that has conflicts with the characteristics of daylighting in Chinese gardens. From the case studies, as the most general and common element in architecture, daylighting can presents the concepts and features within Chinese gardens. At the same time, daylighting are capable to translate the concepts by using modern space language, and it has been proved in some practical projects. From this perspective, daylighting can be a media transfer the illusion in Chinese gardens into space in modern architecture. But the limits for application of daylighting as experiencing in Chinese garden also exist. Because the content and ideas reflected from Chinese garden are generated from Chinese philosophy and the background are very different from today’s already. From this aspect, the concepts in modern space are not totally the same with it originally was.