In many cases, artificial light merely fills the building with light. That light might be functional, comforting and/or aesthetic, but it is merely that – lighting. But every now and then, when the architects and lighting designers work in harmony and unison, lighting design can elevate a project to a whole new level and only through it, the architecture gains its true character and expression.
The degree in which lighting participates in the final effect is not always the same. Some buildings fea- ture a design so expressive, that an equally expressive lighting would push them too far, into a realm of garish over-intensity. In others, lighting might tell its own story of day and night, within the architectural envelope. But when it comes to Step-level House by OFIS architects, it is only through light that the ef- fects the architects carefully built into the house itself, can come to full fruition. It is only once the lights come on, that the brisk lattices on the facade can create their graphic effects. It is only in dusk time, that the complex intertwining of the empty and full, open and closed, external and internal spaces can come to life in its fullest.
