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The oculus will send light down to the station's lowest levels
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The “solar reflector shell” may sound like something NASA would affix to the international space station. Rather, it is headed to Lower Manhattan to help guide subway riders through the new Fulton Street Transit Center.
Read more about the Fulton Transit Center project here.
The shell was conceived and designed by James Carpenter Design Associates, the Tribeca-based firm hired to draw in and shape the light that will fill the Transit Center’s main building. Also called the “oculus,” the shell was inspired by the skylights at the center classical domes like that of the Pantheon in Rome.
But the Transit Center’s oculus takes the concept even further, extending upwards 110 feet from the building’s roof in an angled cylindrical form -- effectively forming a light-soaking tube inside which daylight will ricochet as deep down as the 4/5 subway platform.
Richard Kress is Carpenter’s architect and principal designer of the solar reflector shell. His work can be seen nearby at 7 World Trade Center, where he contributed to the “water-clear” glass façade that both reflects and blends in with the atmospheric colors around it. It also uses a coating to boost the “green” standard by rejecting heat energy while retaining natural light. (Read more about that project here.)
We asked Mr. Kress about the details of the Fulton Transit Center’s oculus, and how it will change the way subway commuters experience both natural and electrically lit spaces.
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| Natural light will be redirected throughout the structure |
How will the new Fulton Street Building take advantage of natural light?
Mr. Kress: The geometry of the external enclosure, coupled with the internal reflector surface and the tilt of the glazed oculus, has been optimized to harness light and re-direct it down into the lower depths of the station, allowing the commuter to be instantly orientated to the sun light. The solar reflector shell is comprised of a supporting “double curved surface,” a delicate cable-net that diffuses and reflects incoming light through the use of perforated aluminum panels. By harnessing the available daylight less electrical light will be needed.
What are some of the design elements that you’re using in the Transit Center’s lighting scheme?
The most dynamic element of the solar reflector shell will be the facetted surface of a series of perforated diamond and triangular shaped panels. The panels are made of a special diffused reflective aluminum, which capture the ever-shifting nature of the zenith light in the sky above. The dynamic effect between the facetted shell geometry and the perforated diffused reflective aluminum material will make an ever-changing three-dimensional mural of daily and seasonal light and sky colors.
What are your favorite parts of this project?
The central atrium space was developed to harness, modulate and redirect natural light down into the building giving a buoyant an iconic interior for New York City commuters and tourists. Passengers arriving and departing from street level or from the subway platforms will be experience a unique luminous threshold day and night.
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