2024 - Norwegian Daylight Architecture: Exploring the Spatial Potential of Daylight at Northern Latitude

This project investigates the spatial experience of daylight and examines the relationship between the geometry of daylight in Norway and the geometry of Norwegian architecture.

Norway was selected as case of research for this project due to the intriguing aspects of daylight along northern latitudes, and because I believe that there is a lack of focus on the variations in daylight within Norwegian architecture.

Quantitative measurements and data conclude the adequacy of daylight conditions in buildings today, while the qualitative aspects are often overlooked. The physical reality of daylight is not solely measurable; certain aspects must be experienced to be truly understood. With daylight, architecture has the potential to become a constantly changing spectacle of spatial experiences.

Daylight does not scale, and therefore qualitative variations of daylight can be observed in models. Model-making serves as an analog approach for spatial exploration in a significant portion of the research conducted in this project.

This project can be divided into five equally important components.

The first component encompasses theoretical research: A thorough literature review was conducted, consulting works from architects, researchers, and other academics to explore various aspects of the theory relevant to this project.

In the second component the aim was to observe how the geometry and character of a space change with the shifting daylight in Norway. This was achieved through photographic documentation in a handcrafted and highly detailed 1:15 scale model of an old Norwegian cabin, over the six-months period from summer solstice to winter solstice. Photos were taken with the same settings every other hour over the course of two days, every six weeks. The outcome is five series consisting of two sequences of images, and a documentation of the weather during each photography.

One cannot with certainty utter facts about the contemporary without understanding the past, and therefore the objective of the third component was to better understand the role daylight has played in the history of Norwegian architecture, through an examination of a selection of case studies. The feeling of history in our surroundings is different from the factual history read on paper and learned in universities; it is a storage of memories, which are real, unique, and authentic. This component primarily involved field trips to the selected case studies, where the room geometries and daylight were experienced in a 1:1 scale. After the field trips, subsequent analytical work was conducted to locate and understand different attitudes and tendencies throughout time.

The method of component 4 involved a exploration of various room geometries from Norwegian architecture. This was done through monochrome models, stripped of details to facilitate a deeper understanding of the geometry of daylight when it collides with the geometry of the models. The models were constructed at a 1:50 scale, with scale reduction applied for larger spaces. Some models quite accurately represent the actual rooms, yet all underwent modifications during the construction process; these models are investigational
geometries, not replicas. The models were used to observe different daylight conditions during the course of one semester.

The fifth and final component encompasses the application of the previous four components to a design strategy. The outcomes from each component establish the foundation for the architectural design project, which naturally extends the work of this project. This project also served as a research methodology, aiming to initiate a discussion on ways of designing with daylight that does not rely
solely on quantitative measurements or digital modeling.
Upon completion of the earlier components, an hypothesis was made: That what distinguishes Norwegian daylight from the rest of the Nordic region is a greater significance of local context. The uniqueness of Norwegian daylight is its reflections from the extremely varied landscape.
The program for the final phase of the project was to design temporary daylight laboratories for further research, consisting of sequences of the spatial geometries from Component 4. This was explored and designed for sites in three distinctly different Norwegian landscapes – the mountains, the ocean front, and the forest – all situated along approximately the same latitude, 60 degrees north, for comparability.