Mashrabiya: Light and sight are fragmented

A screen made of turned wooden slats. Countless slender wooden pieces are turned into alternating ball-and-node shapes, crisscrossing to form a dense geometric mesh of dark brown cedar wood. It is installed in window openings, stair railings, or the upper level of courtyard cloisters, allowing people inside to see out while preventing outsiders from seeing in. Sunlight passing through casts dense geometric light patterns on the floor and walls, moving with time. Avoid: using laser-cut flat panels instead of turned wooden slats, making the grid sparse and losing density, using light-colored and painted wood, having no light source behind the screen so no projection is visible.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一片車枳木條組成的格屏。無數根細木車枳成球節相間的形狀,縱橫交錯組成密集的幾何網,深褐色的雪松木;它裝在窗洞、樓梯的欄杆或中庭迴廊的上層,讓裡面的人看得到外面而外面看不進來。陽光透過去在地板與牆上投下密密麻麻的幾何光斑,隨時間移動。避免:使用雷射切割的平板取代車枳木條、把格子做得稀疏失去密度、使用淺色與上漆的木材、讓格屏後面沒有光源看不出投影。