Shadow Makers

The making of shadows is an act as old as architecture itself. From the gloom of the medieval hearth through to the masterworks of modernism, shadows have been an essential yet neglected presence in architectural history. Shadow-Makers tells for the first time the history of shadows in architecture. It weaves together a rich narrative – combining close readings of significant buildings both ancient and modern with architectural theory and art history – to reveal the key places and moments where shadows shaped architecture in distinctive and dynamic ways. It shows how shadows are used as an architectural instrument of form, composition, and visual effect, while also exploring the deeper cultural context – tracing differing conceptions of their meaning and symbolism, whether as places of refuge, devotion, terror, occult practice, sublime experience or as metaphors of the unconscious. Within a chronological framework encompassing medieval, baroque, enlightenment, sublime, picturesque, and modernist movements, a wide range of topics are explored, from Hawksmoor's London churches, Japanese temple complexes and the shade-patterns of Islamic cities, to Ruskin in Venice and Aldo Rossi and Louis Kahn in the 20th century. This beautifully-illustrated study seeks to understand the work of these shadow-makers through their drawings, their writings, and through the masterpieces they built.

Everything in our solar system casts a shadow. The Earth, the moon, and the planets cast a shadow. The only thing that does not cast a shadow is the sun. The sun shines its light on one half of the planets, while the other half is in the shade of its own shadow. All living and non-living things expose only half of themselves to the light of the sun. Their other half remains in its shadow. Plants and animals are born with a shadow, live with a shadow, and must die with a shadow. Man is born with a shadow; however, he does not have to live and die with a shadow like the rest of the living creatures. He can choose to stay confined within the shadows of earthly things or go beyond the shadows to become something like the sun. But this quest takes a little something extra than most ordinary men seem to look for or even believe is possible to achieve. Early on in childhood, Fr. Peterson wanted to fly. Little did he know that his innocent desire to fly was an extraordinary, shadowless thing called prayer. A real and very extraordinary ear heard his plea. So God s heart, the only one in nature who produces no shadow, was moved to help show him how to go beyond the shadows of worldly things, frightful things, and even deadly things.

The book is full of great ideas about amusing children and adults indoors in stormy and cold evenings. It offers funny, fascinating, and little-known games that were played by our grandparents in their childhood and remains attractive to a contemporary reader today.

Machine generated contents note: -- 1. Shadow Beginnings -- 2. Primordial Shadows -- 3. 'The art of Shaddowes': the Baroque of Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh -- 4. Shadows of the Sublime -- 5. Gothick 'Gloomth' -- 6. John Ruskin and Shadows of Power -- 7. Shadow Carpets -- 8. Shadows of the Unconscious: the Venice of Adrian Stokes and Aldo Rossi -- 9. Louis Kahn and the 'Treasury of Shadows' -- 10. Shadow Futures -- Bibliography -- Index