CHICAGO — The Chicago Model City, which features a replica of Chicago’s downtown, is smaller than the real thing, and its “day” is a lot shorter — 15 minutes vs. 24 hours. The free exhibit, on display at the Chicago Architecture Foundation daily through Nov. 20, 2009, required Lightswitch Architectural to study the summer sun. “We did research on the position of the sun during the summer solstice to make the lighting accurate,” said Avraham Mor, partner, Lightswitch Architectural. It was also necessary to represent the many shades of “white” daylight that the human eye views throughout the day from sunrise to sunset.
Energy conservation is one of the focal points of the Model City, and is also something Lightswitch Architectural likes to emphasize, so the firm is using color-changing LED luminaires requiring only 2,600 watts of energy consumed per day (a 24-hour day, that is.)
“We were able to save 80 percent in energy costs,” said Mor, who is accredited with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
For more information, please visitet http://architecture.lightswitch.net.
