light

Every aesthetic experience is dependent on understanding an object by looking at it. Aesthetic experience is a form of external experience in which the attention is directed at the sensual forms of appearance. One of these is light, an insubstantial and transient building material. HVP are in the process of discovering building with light, using light as an integrative element of architecture. Their interest is not in rapid and harsh lighting solutions that remain superficial and are tiring. They are more interested in the optimum synthesis of space and light. Spatial layers, lattices, and screens that are typical of many of HVP’s buildings filter daylight and slow down the way it penetrates the interior of a building. In 2003 the intimate lighting of the Rackey Gallery in Bad Honnef was awarded the light and architecture prize set up by the Deutsches Architektur Museum and the Messe Frankfurt. The elegant Commerzbank on the Kirchberg offers a good example of the sophisticated use of natural and artificial lighting, illustrated in the way both are reflected by and shine on the beautiful materials of the atrium and foyer. Carefully considered nighttime lighting gives the façade a rhythmical depth and eliminates the boundaries between inside and outside.