Lighting options in airshafts

Below are some examples of existing lighting options that could be customized for airshaft spaces. (Interesting work has been done on solar technology for space exploration and orbital greenhouses.) Incidentally, this post will be updated periodically as I gather more information about installation, maintenance needs, costs, etc.

a)Solar Tracking Mirrors:

Various solar tracking mirrors direct sunlight to a specific target by locating the position of the sun and adjusting mirrors accordingly. One could also build a network using the “master-slave” mirroring system.

Other examples of a heliostat:



b) Fiber Optic Light Cables:
Extremely expensive, fiber optics is nonetheless a worthwhile model to look at for channeling light into dark spaces. The Swedish company, Parans, has developed a way to use fiber optic cables to get natural light into buildings. Again, a bit much for airshaft space, but keeping this on the back burner.

c) Piping Light
Another way of piping light was developed by Solatube, a company that uses highly reflectant material to redirect sunlight into interior spaces. From what I can tell it simply uses reflection and then a lense diffuser to deliver strong and even light. I’ve included this model as a way to think about how to get light into individual apartments to enable indoor gardening, but also as a springboard for considering what sorts of reflectant materials with which we could paint or afix to airshaft walls.