Natural Lighting in Greek Interiors

As the Romans were aware of the thermal and luminance effect that Natural Light had on their dwellings and how they could orientate their interiors to the sun’s path in order to be able to use its natural substances at the appropriate time of the day and to the occupant’s advantage, the Greeks took a different course of action to be able to use natural light benefits in collaboration with their interior.

The orientation of the dwellings themselves were being designed to the east or west in order to allow the natural light to pierce the interior at its two most dominant peaks; the sunrise and the setting of the sun. The Greeks, in their temple interiors kept their cellas; the inner chamber of the temple at low exposure to natural light to keep the element of mystery. Although the focal point was kept at low light the intention was to use natural light to penetrate the statues that were placed in the interiors. This was their primary intention as when the natural light would reach the sculpture it would refine and show attention to the hidden details of the artwork itself therefore making the statues the dominant part of the interior.

To be able to foresee how natural light would affect the interior itself the Greeks made use of Helidons. Helidon is a device which can determine the sun angle that would penetrate the interior; to do so the helidon can be adjusted through three variables, the latitude, time of year and the time of day. As a device helidons are not theoretically clear in relation with the technological advances and knowledge one can access nowadays yet they were one of the first sun measuring systems that was utilized. This is a clear example of what techniques were used in the past in order to strategically use natural light in coordinate with the interior orientation. 

Helidon 

Reference Links ;

Daylight Design of Buildings: A Handbook for Architects and Engineers - Nick Baker, Koen Steemers - Google Books. 2015. [ONLINE] Available at:https://books.google.com.mt/books?id=Eg6AAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. [Accessed 24th April 2015].

index. 2015. index. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.auburn.edu/~lechnnm/heliodon/. [Accessed 24^th April 2015].