I'm home

Sunlight shines brightly through a large window filling this residence with brightness and wind. In Japan, an importance is placed on the sunlight and a large opening is a must for a comfortable residence.
However, is this kind of open and bright residence really comfortable? Of course, considering the Japanese climate of high temperatures and high humidity, a dark and poorly-ventilated residence cannot be comfortable. But having actually lived in this kind of house, one can hardly stand the summer heat, which is so unbearable it makes one exhausted both physically and mentally.
On the other hand, how is it at night? When the lights are turned on, since the inside of the house can be seen through a large window, curtains or screens need to be drawn to avoid exposure. Moreover, in most houses, the lighting is fixed on the ceiling and lights up the indoor equally that there is no delicate mood or subtle ambiguities.
In short, modern Japanese residences create a life where people spend their daily lives under bright and planar lightings, either by day or by night. The beauty in the nature of lighting doesn't exist, and it doesn't go beyond the functional range. The reason for the residences becoming so well lit and bright stems from the post-war vestige where "quantitative" brightness became the symbol of wealth. The dimness of old houses is remembered as a past legacy and the homogeneously-lit houses have been established as the image of the modern residence.
Fundamentally, light exists because of a shadow. By placing an importance on shadows, the quality of space can be increased. It doesn't matter whether it's natural lighting or artificial lighting. In this article, we examine how to plan the lighting from both architectural and interior perspectives, positioning the daylight and night light as one sequence, to shift from quantity to quality and also, to improve one's awareness towards lighting.

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