artificial lighting

Add an “artificial skylight” to any room for $50! Bring natural-ish sunlight to any room. Even works for renters and apartment dwellers!

May 10, 2021

Architecture, Design, Household

artificial lighting, artificial sun, fresnel lens, LED skylight, LED sun, SAD, seasonal affective disorder, skylight

Background: Skylights (or light pipes) are a great way to get natural sunlight indoors. Unfortunately, installation is moderately complicated and is infeasible for renters and high-rise dwellers. Also, skylights only provide light during the daytime (unsurprisingly). Proposal: Thanks to LED lighting, it is possible to create a convincing “artificial skylight” (Figure 1) for 50 American…
“Vertical farming” in skyscrapers might be the next trend in locally-grown food, but wait until you hear about HORIZONTAL farming!

Aug 31, 2020

Architecture, Design, Environment, Technology

artificial lighting, building rotation, crop, crop growing, crop rotation, crops, Farming, greenhouse, horizontal farm, hydroponics, LED, led light, skyscraper, sun, sunlight, vertical farm

Background: Recently, there has been discussion around the futuristic concept of “vertical farming”: growing crops in skyscraper-style greenhouses in city centers. The issue: Although there are many conceptual advantages to such a farm, there is at least one major difficulty: light. Obviously, only the topmost layer of a vertical farm would be practical to light…