Ray of Life
Haoyi Wushan & Chau Yuk Ching Christie
China


© Haoyi Wushan & Chau Yuk Ching Christie

© Haoyi Wushan & Chau Yuk Ching Christie

© Haoyi Wushan & Chau Yuk Ching Christie

© Haoyi Wushan & Chau Yuk Ching Christie
Design to provide the target user a comfortable and luminous space to increase their quality of living with low-cost yet high-performance houses as much as possible. It creates a spacious living environment where people can have lightful interactions with family members and the sunlight. Light is an essential parameter for people to sense and perceive space. The purpose of this design is to create a lightful and comfortable house for families in Brazil who are family-oriented in their common values. For Brazilians, Family-first is the deep-rooted national culture and they would embrace the notion of familial support throughout their extended clans. Brazilians usually live with the whole family and spend a lot of time together. Enhancing the living space with sunlight can increase mood and well-being, thereby improving the quality of time that family is together. Movable brick facade with functional and aesthetic features was the main design element that controlled the amount of sunlight that is irradiating into the house. We applied bricks in this project because of its versatility and commonality in the buildings of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. We intended to use bricks so as to fully utilize the common construction material of bricks in Brazil while facilitating the connection between the house and the sun cost-efficiently. The movable brick facade is designed to limit the sight from the street yet provide optimal lighting and direct sunlight to the living space. With this façade design, the sunlight can pass through the bricks and light up the interior space, which can create a brightsome atmosphere throughout the day. We believe the house with the movable brick facade can improve the quality of life with family members by increasing the lighting in the house with a cost-efficient way of building.