LIGHT + ARCHITECTURE

_Essay | Philosophy in Architecture

_ Iris M. Jansen
_0643880
_ Dr. J.C.T. Voorthuis
November 2012

Even a room which must be dark needs at least a crack of light to know how dark it is.
- Louis I. Kahn

ESSAY
How does light affect the architectural spaces, what is the role of the architect within?

During a warm sunny day, I was walking through the city centre of Lisbon, a beautiful city with its streets, buildings,
people and culture. I walked through big streets covered by a lot of trees, where sometimes your face catches the
interplay of sunbeams and shadows. I continued my journey passing through a smaller old district of this city. Walking
in the upward streets, more alleys with high facades, laundry was hanging outside, the windows were closed, and all I
could see were the blinds covering the openings of the facade. I could imagine because of the climate during summer,
people close their blinds for keeping the spaces inside cool, but during some walk in autumn blinds were closed again.
Seeing this, you start to wonder how people live inside the houses in these alleys; do they only use artificial light instead
of natural daylight? When observing the alley you see a repetition of openings in the facades, on your left on your
right and across the alley you see the same openings, which perforate the plaster faade. You start to wonder, what is
the main reason for designing a faade like that? How important are the windows in the faade for the interior spaces
behind it? But you can ask yourself that question where ever you are. Light, particularly daylight; is it an element
that interferes with architecture, what should be of a great importance to the architect and his designs, formerly and
nowadays? In this essay we will first discuss the particular aspects of light and shadow and how it interferes with spaces.
Then, there will be an exposition of the philosophy and ideals of architect Louis I. Kahn about designing with light
followed by the interpretation of spaces and designing them.
Light and shadows
Light; it is the first thing that captures your eye after you are born and it is often the last thing you see when you take
your last breath. Light makes humans, objects, spaces, architecture and everything we see around us visible by its
reflection. Without light, we cannot see, not even darkness. Everyday, people are confronted with light and shadow, two
elements that are inseparable. Light can be discussed in two levels, natural light and artificial light, the latter is created
by humans. In a discussion about natural light; the dynamic daylight created by the sun. As Rasmussen states: Daylight
is constantly changing. The other elements of architecture we have considered can be exactly determined. Daylight alone
he cannot control01 I believe no person will disclaim this statement. Daylight is a natural element that changes every
minute, caused by the rotation of the earth around the sun. It controls days, time, seasons, which causes that humans have
to surrender to this. Also architecture has to adapt this element in its design process. An overall element in architecture
is the admirable property of daylight, for urbanism, squares, large buildings, small buildings and details; every scale is
confronted by it.
Daylight causes an interference of the inside space and the outside space, through openings which are created by
design. A window is the most important element in designing architecture to allow the inside spaces to communicate with
the outside world and to provide the inside space of daylight. The pitfall of designing with this element is: The same
room can be made to give very different spatial impressions by the simple expedient of changing the size and location of
its openings.02 In this text there is a concentration on dwellings, dwellings retain different rooms with different uses and
therefor need different approaches of daylight. Stating this, an architect has to work with two variables in this subject.
The actual design of the space, its dimensions and its use, and its approach by daylight through windows. It makes
clear that in every single space you design, there exist numerous opportunities to get the desired amount of daylight
in your space. Later in this text, I will discuss the thought of Henry Lefebvre in his book The production of space, where
he searches for the reconciliation between mental space (the space of philosophers) and real space (the physical and
social spheres we all live).03 How to design with the actual real space, and the way the user it experiences; the mental
space at the same time.

Notes
01
02

LIGHT + ARCHITECTURE

Rasmussen, S.E., Experiencing Architecture, (1964), p. 186

Rasmussen, S.E., Experiencing Architecture, (1964), p. 187
03
Lefebvre, H., Production of space, Donald NicholsonSmith(transl.), (1991), p. backside

This thought makes you realize that architects are not regular designers. Architects design spaces, houses, streets, places
that create the world we live in and it interferes with our emotions and well-being. Because of the narrow relation
between light and spaces, light will also have a big influence on our emotions, our mental condition, the way we adapt
our building environment. Natural light says something about our time and day, the seasons where we are in.
Nevertheless, we cannot forget that light and shadow are inseparable. The interaction of light and shadows is very
narrow for our human eye. Shadows are caused by the opposite result of light, regarding designing it gives shape and
texture to objects. The equilibration between light and shadow is more important then you can imagine for our mental
and real space.

Fig 01. North-east facade of

the Tribune Review Publishing
Company Building.

Fig 02. Ground floor office space, viewing the upper

windows and the vertical windows from ceiling to floor. It
provides maximum light from above and small narrow light
and view on eye-level.

Notes
04

McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 7

McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 9
06
Lefebvre, H., Production of space, Donald NicholsonSmith(transl.), (1991), p. 12
07
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 136
08
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 137
09
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 138
10
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 140
11
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 141
12
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 146
05

LIGHT + ARCHITECTURE

Master of light
Louis I. Kahn, if he was the master of light cannot be assured, but he had an obsession about designing with light and
shadow, that is known. An architect who lived from 1901 until 1974, believed: architecture was not to do with what a
building looks like but to do with how spaces are ordered, with how it is built, and how these affect what is experienced
by those who inhabit it.04 And this is also a representation of how he designed as an architect. Louis I. Kahn lived in
an era of modern architecture, his primary concern throughout his career, was the space within, the interior space and its
experience.05 This architect always discussed the experience of habitation. And according to Lefebvre: habitation the
human habitat, so to speak are the concern of architecture.06
Around 1950 Louis I. Kahn went to Europe and especially visited, drew and admired the ancient architecture there.
During the movie My Architect (2003) his son Nathaniel Kahn said Louis wanted to build modern buildings, but the
buildings should have the feeling of ancient ruins. This idea formed his conception of architecture and caused the
break of Louis I. Kahn with the International Style around 1955. He truly believed that a natural light was the primary
determinant of a rooms quality as a space. As an architect he had an obsession about designing with light and shadow.
In his designs, he reflects that the architecture of mass and structure is a maker of powerful shadows, and at this time
Kahn began to see sunlight as the most important characteristic of space in architecture.07 The genesis of this philosophy,
the conception of mass, structure, light and shadow, you can argue about how he developed it in his designs. He was
fascinated by what he saw in the European architectural ancient ruins. After he came back: It was at this time that
Kahn began to develop designs with layered walls and they periphery so as to create volumes of light-filled space, at once
inside and outside the building, protecting the interior spaces within. He often spoke appreciatively of ruins which, when
freed of the limitations of use, stand as hollow masses flooded with light and shadows. As Scully has pointed out Kahns
characteristic difficulty (was) within the skin of his building, with, that is, the element which seemed to him neither structure
nor space, and in the layered spatial shells of masonry ruins Kahn found structure and space in its purest form.08
I think this perception is true; the genesis of his designs for architectural spaces is based on what he saw in these ruins,
just before he started working on his greatest designs.
Concerning the philosophy of Louis I. Kahn by designing architecture with light, we make an observation of his decisions
during one of his design processes. One of his first designs that view his conception about daylight, shadows, spaces
and its inhabitants. The Tribune Review Publishing Company Building in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was a project where
Louis I. Kahn was working on from 1958-1961, in that period he was also working on his design for the Salk Institute.
This building, was the first of Kahns projects to demonstrate the architects emerging articulation of the relationship
between structure and light.09 It houses several workspaces; the main goal was to distribute natural light to the interior
spaces. As said before, natural light gives us a perception of time and day; therefor we like to live in that light but do
not want to be disturbed by it. It should affect the mental space positively. Giving this statement he decided that the
openings should be high in the rooms. The light not only is diffused as it bounces off the ceiling but also penetrates deeply
and evenly into the space, falling from above onto the work surfaces within.10
His final design shows the rhythm of the horizontally orientated windows, between the beams of the ceiling what will
establish his earlier statement. Concerning his east and west elevations; Under these upper windows, the infill walls are
split at their centres by tall narrow windows that run from these upper windows to the floor. Together, the horizontal and
vertical windows produced a T-shaped opening.11 The elevations on the north and south side are the opposite; because
of the different orientation to the sun he treated these facades differently. He used square big openings in the upper
half, and more below a rectangular small window. As we stand within, these two types of windows not only reveal for us
the solar orientation of the building, with its ever-changing light, but also profile and highlight the precast structure

and its masonry supporting piers.12 In every faade of this building Louis I. Kahn worked with a typical
collaboration of mass and openings in its structure.
The way he designed those openings, was upon his idea of bringing natural light in the interior spaces and let
inhabitants experience it. Louis I. Kahn formed a lot of typologies for this subject, published in the book Licht
und Raum, Urs Buttiker. Also in this design he developed a new approach concerning this architectural believe.

To review, you can see the influence of ancient ruins. Can you imagine by using the small vertical windows from ceiling to

Architecture is the making of a room; an assembly of rooms, The Light is the light of that room.
Thoughts exchanged by one and another are not the same in one room as in another
- Louis I. Kahn

floor, you have the same approach in the colonnades of these ruins, but in the opposite way? The mass structured walls
will give shadow, where the vertical openings will bring light; it is the interplay of shadow and light. But this interplay,
will it give the right imprint to the space? Did he consider the experience of the faade outside?
Space and light
Space and light, here it will all come together. Architecture, the design of our building environment cannot be without
these two understandings. When you speak about architecture, you speak about spaces. But when you speak about
spaces you do not only speak about architecture, you also speak about the mental space. Since the existence of humans
on this planet we created spaces, the main purpose was to give ourselves shelter for the nature among us, and that still
remains our first concern nowadays. We create buildings to give ourselves shelter to our nature and these buildings
consist of connected spaces. But instead of only creating inside spaces, we also create the outside spaces we move
through. You can also translate that to designing the private and public spaces around us, on the micro or architectural
level and the macro level currently treated as the province of urbanists, politicians and planners; the everyday realm and
the urban realm; inside and outside.13 As an architect you constantly work between the boundaries of public and private
spaces on all kinds of levels. In the current context we will especially speak about the private interior spaces, we will
consider the public space as an outside space for now. As said before, daylight causes interference between inside and
outside spaces. The architectural elements, doors and windows, are the transferors of getting daylight into our interior
spaces.
The architect has to design these openings to get daylight into the spaces that will be used by its later inhabitants. It is
not common that every architect really thinks this through; every architect knows that he has to design with spaces and
light, but does not really deliberate the effect on each other. And even if they do, they also consider the experiences
by the inhabitants in the designed spaces? The inhabitants are the users of the spaces architects design and they
experience that space daily. The architect is the only person who can interfere in how people experience a space. But
the experience of a space, not only the experience of daylight in spaces can be seen in two different ways; the mental
space experience and the real space experience.
Henri Lefebvre states the following: the quasi-logical presupposition of an identity between mental space (the space
of the philosophers and epistemologists) and real space creates an Abyss between the mental sphere on one side and the
physical and social spheres on the other.14 By all means, a space will provide a mental sphere and a physical sphere
because of the existence of a mental space and a real space. As an inhabitant enters a interior space, regarding the
space two aspects apply, the geometrical aspect of the space and the visual aspect of the space. Particular is that
daylight only has an influence on the visual aspect of the space. But both of these aspects concern the design of the
space, it concerns architecture. As for Louis I. Kahn The relationship between that what makes space the structure and
that which gives a space life its natural light became the primary focus.15

Notes
13

Lefebvre, H., Production of space, Donald NicholsonSmith(transl.), (1991), p. 64

14
Lefebvre, H., Production of space, Donald NicholsonSmith(transl.), (1991), p. 6
15
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 137
16
Lefebvre, H., Production of space, Donald NicholsonSmith(transl.), (1991), p. 38,39

LIGHT + ARCHITECTURE

Now we consider the designed space by the architect and the lived space by its user as the same, Lefebvre states it
differently:
2 Representations of space: conceptualized space, the space of scientists, planners, urbanists, technocratic subdividers and
social engineers, as of a certain type of artist with a scientific bent - all of whom identify what is lived and what is perceived with what is conceived. (Arcane speculation about Numbers, with its talk of the golden number, moduli and canons,
tends to perpetuate this view of matters.) This is the dominant space in any society (or mode of production). Conceptions of
space tend, with certain exceptions to which I shall return, towards a system of verbal (and therefore intellectually

worked out) signs.

3 Representational spaces: space as directly lived through its associated images and symbols, and hence the
space of inhabitants and users, but also of some artists and perhaps of those, such as a few writers and philosophers, who describe and aspire to do no more than describe. This is the dominated and hence passively
experienced space which the imagination seeks to change and appropriate. It overlays physical space, making
symbolic use of its objects. Thus representational spaces may be said, though again with certain exceptions, to
tend towards more or less coherent systems of nonverbal symbols and signs.16

space - natural and social, practical and symbolic should come into being inhabited by a
(signifying and signified) higher reality. By Light, for instance the light of sun, moon or stars as
opposed to the shadows, the night, and hence death; light identified with the True, with life, and hence
with thought and knowledge and, ultimately, by virtue of mediations not immediately apparent, with
established authority.
- Henry Lefebvre, Prodcuction of space, (1991), p. 34

He states that the representation of space, the space that the architect thinks about and designs is a different approach
than the representational space, the space that the user actually experiences. However for the designing process it
should always be connected, the architect indeed designs it for the user. And of course, this also applies on the aspect
of daylight in spaces. Daylight will appear in the design of the architect; the architect will have a conceptualized idea
of daylight in his spaces. What is of even greater importance is that the architect thinks about what daylight will do to
the representational space. In what way the space reacts on the invading daylight and how an inhabitant experiences
it. It is about the mental sphere and the physical sphere of a space.
As previously noted, an inhabitant wants to have a perception of time, day and season. It is reasonable that we get
up at sunrise and live and work during the day, when our body catches daylight. The biggest struggle for architects
and urbanists is, that the design always will be an interpretation. When you design a space, you have to think about
its dimensions. Following you will consider your openings, the element that provides the room daylight. Then they start
thinking, do I want one big opening, a few small openings? Do I want a diffused daylight from above or a direct sharp
light from beside? You cannot talk about spaces in general, there are too many variables; you should speak of one
particular space with one opening that provides daylight inside. This is a different approach than of Louis I. Kahn, he
held that a plan of a building should read like a harmony of spaces in light Each space must be defined by its structure
and the character of its natural light.17
An architect should be aware of the affect of daylight through his designed openings in the faade on the spaces
behind the faade. An architect should consider the effect on the representational space for its user, concerning every
single space he creates in his design. I believe every single ray of daylight in a room gives an experience to its user.
Louis I. Kahn was one of a few architects in his time that thought about this in every single design. He believed that
natural light defined a space. Unfortunately you can see in his designs that the habitation inside was primarily, the
faade was second. Also in this text interior spaces were the main subject, we should also consider the outside space,
but it is another perspective on this subject.
For now, there is to conclude that light actually has a great affect on architectural spaces. Presenting the ideas of light,
the philosophy of Louis I. Kahn and the connection between mental space and real space made an exposition of light
and space. Light has an affect on how inhabitants feel; romantic because of the dusk, moody because of the sharp
sunlight in their faces, happy because of the light of sunrise, and so on. But it has also an effect on the real space; many
shadows creating a smaller space, bright daylight creating a good view, interplay between light and shadows what
creates depth in a space. These are all examples of how light can affect architectural spaces; it plays with our mental
sphere and physical, social sphere.
Realizing that however an architect designs a space and openings of this space, the user of this space will remain
the ruler of the representational space. In the design process architects have to adapt the influence of daylight in
architectural spaces and the experiences of its users to have a satisfying result.
However, I will keep wondering why a faade has its design like it is when I walk through the city. But for now, I know
the user of the interior spaces will remain the ruler and decides how much and in what way he wants daylight in his
spaces. An inhabitant should be able to experience an architectural space as it is designed by its architect. It is the task
of the architect to adapt the choices of its user while designing with daylight, to keep the blinds wide open.
Literature
Lefebvre, H., Production of space, Donald Nicholson-Smith(transl.), Maiden, Blackwell Publishing, 1991 (1974)
McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, New York, Phaidon Press Incorporated, 2009 (2005)
Rasmussen, S.E., Experiencing Architecture, Cambridge Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 1964 (1959)

Notes
17

LIGHT + ARCHITECTURE

McCarter, R., Louis I. Kahn, (2009), p. 137

Figures
Fig 01. McCarter,
Fig 02. McCarter,

R., Louis I. Kahn, New York, Phaidon Press Incorporated, 2009 (2005), p. 146
R., Louis I. Kahn, New York, Phaidon Press Incorporated, 2009 (2005), p. 145