Natural Time | Living Artifact

Re-establish a natural connection to time and circadian rhythm by bringing the sun’s cycle indoors.

Out of Sync

When is that last time you woke up with at sunrise, took a break at noon, or remembered to enjoy a sunset? It can be easy to leave behind our circadian rhythm when life is based around a clock. This project aims at reconnecting mental perceptions of time to our biological connection to the sun and sky.

Sunrise, Noon, Sunset, Midnight

Luminosity and Temperature

The clock mirrors the natural cycles of color and brightness throughout the day; the light naturally brightens from dark night tones to a warm sunrise. It progresses to its maximum brightness at noon before settling down to a warm sunset. These variations happen naturally from solar refraction and light angles, but are completely lost with indoor lighting.

The concept for the clock uses color temperature filters on broad spectrum light source and a controlled aperture to mechanically reflect the changes of natural light each day. Specific color filters are matched to known daylight values to reinforce circadian rhythm. This principle is the reason phones now have blue light filtering.

Simple is Hard

Light angle diagram. It was important for this project to feel like an extension of nature, this meant relying on mechanical instead of digital design to control light color and intensity. This design controls intensity and light diffusion through an offset aperture and specific diffusion angles. These mechanical properties give a sharp, direct light at noon that transitions all the way to a diffused glow at night.