SUNDIAL ROOM

The need to increase people’s efficiency at situations where they need to be focused for a long time, by helping them keep track of time non-invasively. Also, connect people with nature, which is a scientifically proven way for reducing anxiety and boosting creativity. (Ref.: Terry Hartig, Peter Kahn Jr. Living in cities naturally. Science, Vol. 352, Issue 6288. (May, 2016), pp. 938-940)

The Sundial Room project involves an indoor space with a specific rooftop architecture that manipulates sunlight in order to create a whole day light experience. Taking into account the yearly shift of the sun’s arc, the light that enters to the room has a different pattern each moment during a year.

There are three main different light phases during the day: Morning time, Noon-Midday and, Afternoon-Evening time.
• At Morning and Afternoon-Evening phases, sunlight enters directly through the ceiling. During these phases, time can be measured using a sundial scale: either attached to the wall, working with the ray’s angle, or set on the floor in the middle of the room.
• At Midday phase, the room gets shady while there are only two beams of light entering from two opposite points inside the room. The length of each of the phases can be adjusted by changing the tilt of roof’s panels.

In order to examine the phenomenon and its behavior thoroughly a prototype was created. The prototype featured only one of the two walls equipped with the light capturing mechanism and the opposite wall was taken out so that the interior could be easily examined. The main materials used were foamcore, wire and masking tape.