---
title: Daylighting Past, Present, Future
description: Transformit Sculptural Tension Fabric Structures
---
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### Daylighting Past, Present, Future
*Daylighting,* a new term for an old practice, simply means *managing natural light in a building*, both by bringing light into the building and by keeping it out when it is not wanted. It is associated with recent efforts to make efficient use of materials and energy.
The history of architecture can be seen as a progression to lighter construction with longer clear spans. In early times, the problem was getting enough light into the building. As material and construction technology have advanced, especially in the last century, the problem evolved to controlling daylight. The 1960s and 70s brought site-specific passive solar design, which was not widely adopted. The relatively recent goal of constructing carbon-neutral buildings has inspired a range of new thinking, and made what was previously seen as the fringe of design acceptable and desirable.
This page shows some interesting and noteworthy examples from a vast pool of past, present, and future ideas. Along with functionality, our focus is on beauty in the built environment.
"When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." R. Buckminster Fuller
### The Great Pyramid
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/pyramid/)
*Diagram: Wikimedia Commons*
The pyramid's interior didn't need daylight, but the builders did need the North Star to maintain precise orientation during construction: The descending passage (4) is precisely aligned with Polaris's position in 3,000 BC. In effect, the Pyramid is a giant sextant or surveyor's transit. It is also possibly the first "light pipe" or "light tube".
### The Colosseum
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/colosseum/)
*Photo: Degged.com*
Built in the first century, the Colosseum had a fabric cover used to shade the spectators from sun and rain. It also assisted with ventilation.
### The Pantheon
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/pantheon/)*Photo: Emilio Labrador
*Built by the Romans in the second century, daylight enters the Pantheon through the oculus at the top of the dome.
# Gaudí: Worship and Light
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/gaudi-1/)
*Photo: Poniol60*
*[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/gaudi-2/)*
*Photo: Cindy Thompson*
Light from the sun has always been associated with spirituality. Nowhere is the spiritual nature of daylight explored more exuberantly than in Gaudí's *La Sagrada Familia*. It has been under construction since 1882, and is scheduled for completion in 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudí's death.
# Saarinen's Chapel at MIT
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/saarinen/)
*Photo: Blaine N. Rawdon*
Light from a circular skylight cascades down the leaves of a metal sculpture by Harry Bertoia onto the white marble altar. The chapel was completed in 1955.
# US Pavilion, Expo '67
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/fuller-1/)
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/fuler-2/)Photos: Blaine N. Rawdon
*Designed by Buckminster Fuller for Expo '67 in Montreal, this geodesic dome used active rolling shades to manage heat gain in the clear ball of the dome.*
### Mesa Arts & Entertainment Center
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/ftl-1/)
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/ftl-2/)
*Photos courtesy FTL Design Engineering Studio
FTL designed and engineered a series of south-facing brise-soleils which cover the facade. To resist wind loading, the fabric shade elements are twisted to create hyperbolic parabolic shapes.
The project was completed in 2005.*
### Light Pipes, Passive and Active
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/passive-tube/)*Photo: Daystar Skylight Systems
*Skylights collect and direct daylight down highly reflective tubes to the diffusers below.
[](https://www.transformit.com/Daylighting-Past-Present-Future/active-tube/)*Photo: carpenternorris.com
A roof-mounted heliostat (sun-tracking mirror) directs light down a 14-story atrium. The light is directed outward by a tapering tube of prismatic glass, and diffused by stretched fabric.*
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