Our recent post about a windowless 100 sq. ft. living apartment with three walls of simulated immersive virtual displays mimicking an array of “rooms” and the outdoor spaces proved controversial. The concept struck a dystopian chord, perhaps crossing the line where technology becomes a blatant inferior replacement, rather than a positive supplement to life. The CoeLux daylight simulation system may be accepted in a more positive light, since its simulation is more subtle, unobtrusive, and convincing.
With three options to choose from—the CoeLux 30, CoeLux 45, and the CoeLux 60—each numerical label represents the angle and light temperature of simulated by a proprietary LED lighting array designed to be installed overhead in spaces where no windows are available:
CoeLux 60: For those who prefer the more dramatic slice of tropical light, CoeLux 60 offers yet an additional solution in a skylight with cooler, vertical sunlight, and the maximum luminance contrast of light and shadow.
CoeLux 45: For lovers of the Mediterranean basin there is CoeLux 45, a skylight featuring a 45 degree ceiling beam that offers an equal balance of light and shade, best enhancing the shapes and volumes that have historically flourished in outdoor architecture.
CoeLux 30: For enthusiasts of Nordic countries, CoeLux 30 is available, with a 30 degree angle beam relative to the horizon. It is a wall window and is capable of reproducing a warm, grazing light.
Over ten years in development and the brainchild of Professor Paolo Di Trapani, coordinator of the project and a physicist at the University of Insubria in Como, Italy, the CoeLux system relies upon a sophisticated optical system projecting LED-produced light through a millimeters-thick layer of nano-structured material to diffuse and transmit lightwaves in the same process sunlight reaches us through the atmosphere (also know as the Rayleigh scattering process; more described here); the effect is more true to the sensation of real sunlight compared to a typical full spectrum light system without the atmospheric scattering formulated in, designed for indoor architectural spaces where access to a window is unavailable.
From Paolo Di Trapani:
With COELUX, you can experience sunny skies anytime, anywhere. Like trying to describe the scent of a perfume or the colour of a tropical sun, it is difficult to describe COELUX’s uplifting effects due to the perception of infinite space which the technology produces. Indeed, evidence collected in the course of the project has shown that even claustrophobic individuals feel happy and relaxed when exposed to COELUX light despite remaining in a windowless room of a few square metres for a sustained period of time.
The CoeLux technology is currently part of the project “Z! Zingonia, Mon Amour”, curated by ARGOT ou La Maison Mobile and Marco Biraghi, an integrated ceiling with three openings leading up to a simulated sky.