daylight comes sideways*

red dot: best of the best
red dot award: design concept 2007

design:

Daniel Rybakken

While the majority of lamp designs focus on the physical shape of the product, this project has a strong focus on the light itself, and its effect – which carries particular importance in Scandinavia.

A room filled with daylight gives a feeling that the space you are inhabiting is larger than the physical bounds of the room. Daylight provides a sign of something beyond the four walls. In a room without daylight, the feeling of perceived space decreases, and the contrast between the ‘outdoors’ and ‘indoors’ increases. For some, this can result in a feeling of enclosure, and of being alone or lonely – a social barrier.

The goal of daylight comes sideways* was to unconsciously create the feeling of an expanded room through an illusion of natural daylight, “revealing the idea of surroundings beyond the actual room”. The core of the idea was to create a “blurred window”. This encompasses a dynamic re-creation of daylight by forging artificial shadows from objects outside the physical room – the same way that a tree blowing in the wind, or a cloud passing overhead, would give a dynamic shadow on a semitransparent window.

The effect is created by the individual dimming of several light emitting diodes (LEDs), arranged behind a semitransparent acrylic surface. Through such motion of light, the unconscious illusion of daylight is enhanced. The product has been developed with the Scandinavian light condition in mind, which features very limited access to daylight during the winter months. A Danish report has shown that only 7-10% of the Scandinavian population is not affected by daylight levels.

The imagined user situation is a small/medium-sized room with limited daylight. Through the connection of additional modules, however, one could reach the desired effect in larger areas. The idea is that the user can enjoy a complete interaction with the dynamics – changing the light intensity, the amount and speed of the shadows, and setting a time to be woken by “daylight”.