Author
Ines Vauclair
Published
Reading
7 min read
Before we draw a wall, we draw a shadow. On every new project, the first sheet pinned above the table is a plan with the sun path laid over it and the shade of each hour hatched in pencil.
Shade is a material
In the south of Europe, the most precious thing a building can give is a cool room at three in the afternoon. That room is made of shade, and shade is made of depth: thick walls, recessed windows, overhangs and courtyards.
“Light only becomes visible when something stands in its way.”
Drawing the shadow first also slows us down. It forces us to stay on the site longer, to visit at different hours, to notice the tree that will shade the terrace in August and the neighbour’s wall that steals the winter sun.
What it changes
It changes almost everything: the orientation of rooms, the size of openings, the colour of the plaster. And it costs nothing. A shadow is the one material we never have to buy.
