Light core

With the city’s development, more and more tall buildings have been built. The city density is higher than ever before. The relationship between the new tall building and low old buildings has been the topic in urban development. In some situations, the old buildings must be preserved. Especially the residence, there are a lot of owners in one building. Thence the property rights problem of the house is hard to solve. In some historical areas, to keep the region’s culture and history, the traditional buildings should be preserved. However, the old building between the tall buildings is difficult to get daylight. Even they have a big wide balcony. Hence, based on the old buildings reforming is necessary. In our project, our site is in Chongqing, China. The city was built in the mountain. When you walked in the city, you experienced a high height difference. In the center of Chongqing, there are a great number of old low residents. In recent years, because of tall buildings built, only part of the building top can get daylight. In some extreme situations, the house can’t get daylight all day. Thence, our aim is how to let people who live in the old residence re-acquire the daylight. After the fieldwork and research, we decided to utilize the core of the building. In Chongqing, the residence is usually built-in ten to fifteen stories to suit the high-density population in the city. The core of housing includes the elevators and suitcases. Because it belongs to a public space in the house, the problem of property rights is easy to solve. The core reforming is feasible. Firstly, we open the core and let the daylight come into the center of the house. Using the special material, the light can arrive to the bottom of the building. The special material can decrease the light irradiance and convey the daylight. In some situations, the building can’t get daylight all day. We extend the core up. The daylight will be received and conveyed to the center of the buildings.Secondly, we change the interior wall to the window. All of the windows face the light core. In the original core space, the corridor is dark and moist. No one wants to stay in it. But now, daylight changes people’s life. The light core likes an interior garden, let people stay here. The interior windows reinforce the people’s communication with their neighbors. In the original situation, the people who live in the old residence only get the daylight from their balcony, but now they can get daylight from the center of the building. The daylight lets people gather and changes their lifestyles. The light core not only resolves the daylighting problem but also redefined the indoor and outdoor space.