The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

PART THREE | INNER RESOURCES
with our own psychological reality. The built world becomes
detached from us and literally rises above the concerns of most
human beings. What we don’t recognize, we cannot heal. What
hope is there for the built world when we ignore our own nature?
Architecture is no stranger to physical shadow, a condition in
which shade is cast by the interception of light. It is widely understood
that “darkening” has always been part of the design palette.
Shadow is exalted in the reveal, a type of construction detail in
which a joint or seam between materials is hidden by recessing a
surface. The reveal hides by casting a shadow. A similar idea can be
found in the scotia–a Greek term for shadow–a concave molding
that casts a strong shadow at the base of a column. Its effect is to
allow the column to appear to float by obscuring its connection
with the ground.
Architecturally, the use of shadow is as powerful as light itself,
and these two are obviously in dialogue. At the start of a performance,
a darkened room is aroused by a spot of light. Often, at the
point of entry to a religious building, we meet a shadowy space
before moving through to an expansion of well-lit space. The darkening
of a space helps to create a kind of compression before
progressing into a sense of expansion accompanied by light.
Physical shadow can also make an interior seem unwelcoming or
frightening. Horror films are drawn to climax in dark basements and
shadowy attics and there are whole parts of cities in which shadowy
things are known to occur in contrast to the bright city lights.
According to Rudolph Otto, darkness in our religious buildings,
along with silence and emptiness, is necessary to create the physical
container for a sense of holiness. The darkness of narrow streets
provides the context for the unexpected emergence into bright,
sunny, public space. A dramatic indication of our modern refusal
to consider the meaning of the shadow is found in the exaggerated
level of lighting that now fills our cities and shopping environments.
While issues of safety and merchandising drive some of
these lighting levels, our cities remain unsafe because our own
psychological shadow isn’t factored into place making. We are
afraid of our own darkness. Annihilating the shadow paradoxically
means there can be no sense of security. We need to get to know
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