Our cities are struggling. It wasn’t so long ago that we associated summer with warm evenings outdoors and an electrifying nightlife. These memories are now being erased by sleepless nights and other arduous effects of the heat, even risks to our health. The heat island effect threatens to make summer in the city unbearable. More and more, we rely on heat buffers and shade providers to counteract the stress of extreme temperatures. Here we would like to show some of our projects that treat shadow as the first material to bring out.

A sneak preview of our latest project: A pavilion that serves as an annex for Dusseldorf’s FOM University, offers a seminar and recreation room and a place to linger, inside and in the shaded outdoor space.

The structure of the parasol as a sculptural architectural landmark of Seville provides constantly changing shade and generates many references: old trees, cathedral arches, wooden carved screens or the arabesque geometric patterns on historic buildings.

The ondulated cantilevering roof plays around the existing trees on the square, protects from the sun and rain, and lends the buildings and the square a new characteristic identity. The shade it casts zones the space into places of rest within a busy mobility intersection and blurs the line separating inside and outside.

And to conclude, some extra reading with more background information on the history of cooling before air-conditioning: