Mai-Anh Doan’s light therapy chambers tackle Seasonal Affective Disorder.
In the lead-up to each issue, we challenge emerging designers to respond to the Frame Lab theme with a forward-looking concept. Light is the biggest stimulus to the nervous system, and light pollution (through everything from constantly lit cities, day and night, to constant screen time) is affecting sleep patterns, general wellbeing and prolonging recovery time. How can we tap into the more restorative potential of light to counter these issues? And how can we make our systems more human-centric while better balancing artificial and natural light? We asked three creative practices to share their ideas.
Holding a master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Idaho, Vietnamese designer Mai-Anh Doan is currently working as a professional in Seattle, WA. Through her work, she aims to create living environments that significantly contribute to the user’s performance, health and happiness. Doan's proposed light chambers follow the sun to capture natural changes of light.
What light-related issue are you addressing with your project?
MAI-ANH DOAN: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a severe type of depression related to changes in seasons. I’ve chosen Belltown, Seattle, as my research location, where it’s cloudy about nine months of the year. As a result, 30 per cent of the population suffers from SAD.
How do you suggest to ‘treat’ this disorder?
By providing light therapy spaces. I’ve conceptualized four ‘floating’ chambers – a morning room, noon room, afternoon room and meditation room – that are stimulating, strengthening, calming and meditating. All four chambers are designed on the roof of a proposed branch of the Seattle Public Library for the Belltown neighbourhood. They are designed to follow the sun and capture all the changes of the natural light of the Northwest region in the US. I aim to show the importance of light on our circadian rhythm and explore new ways of employing both daylight and electric light to establish a more normal circadian rhythm for people suffering from SAD. The project, including the featured light therapy rooms, serves as both a branch library and a community space for the local neighbourhood.
Light is filtered into the therapeutic chambers from custom skylights that correlate to colour temperatures of the natural sky conditions.
How does your design benefit from the natural light available?
The chambers feature custom-designed skylights to maximize daylighting quality for therapeutic purposes. Research into the way the correlated colour temperature of natural sky conditions and the wavelengths of electric light impact the circadian rhythm hugely defined the design strategies for shaping the sky apertures of each chamber. I’ve also included an LED lighting system into my concept in order to replicate the light characteristics at night. The effect of the electric lighting is also visible on the outside when it’s dark, resulting in four glowing rooftop chambers that mark the neighbourhood site and raise curiosity.
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