Lightwall Cirie, Turin, Italy. The concept of lightwall reinterpret the traditional massive Italian wall as a thick solid sponge, whose ability to absorb and filter heat, light and view can be changed and adapted to contextual requirements. In a large villa conversion project sun, light and privacy conditions where mapped on the site and a wall solution of pre-cast concrete insulated and custom designed blocks was chosen as preferred; using parametric modeling tools, (Bentley Generative Components developed by Bentley and the Smart Geometry group) eLS designed a system of spiraling cavities to selectively manipulate the filtering potentials of the wall/sponge.
The ability to control, as a single connected system, both the geometry of the holes and the overall wall/sponge behavior in relationship to the contexts environmental pressures, allowed design to emerge as an iterative process. Optimization resulted into a higher degree of differentiation and architectural richness. Where the pores open the view over the outside green landscape seams uninterrupted, yet the wall is retaining 70% of its original mass.