Skylight Magic

The nice couple came to my office one morning. "We’re ready," he said.

Responding to my look of surprise, she added, "Don’t you remember? Two years ago we visited your open house. We’ve been doing our homework and now we are ready to build."

They sold their New Jersey home and moved to North Carolina. On a small lake near Greensboro they found a densely wooded lot that had been bypassed by the builders of the subdivision.

They wanted the Japanese-influenced style they had seen at my open house.

The budget was flexible,.... but not unlimited.

They wanted an open plan that would make them feel in the middle of the forest, with a view of the lake and woods from every room and of the stars overhead from their bed. All this while maintaining maximum energy efficiency.

We resolved the view requirement by giving each room windows on both sides of the house. Also the mature hardwoods provided natural solar control which permitted the use of tall glass walls for a view into the tree-tops, without paying too high a price from the stand point of energy and comfort.

But how could we combine an overhead view of the trees and stars with a comfortable, energy efficient bedroom? In our climate, a glass ceiling is out of the question in the summer. I love it when the clients pile up seemingly impossible combinations of requirements, because this gives me the occasion to think up something new, keeping each project fresh with new ideas.

I remembered a skylight on top of a square tube of mirrors in a restaurant in Durham. It let in an amazing amount of light in spite of the length of the tube. I also remembered a cupola by Guarini (1624-83) in my native Italy, which was composed of arches in square sets, overlapping as they climb higher, leaving glimpses of the sky at every intersection.

Making a model using cut mirror tiles, I soon had the solution. One 4' square skylight is made to look like a large number of skylights by a tube of 4 mirrors: a kaleidoscope in which the tree branches against the sky are seen in ever widening views, at different angles. Below this, 3 tiers of 4 mirror tubes widen and rotate as they descend, expanding glimpses of sky and branches to most of the ceiling. The result: a small opening for energy with a large view of the sky.