Constructing Shadows

Book excerpt: Trees are ideal sources of shade; where they cannot be used, their function is taken over by tents, pergolas, and pavilions. In the context of global warming, shade-providing construction is becoming an increasingly important building task. In Part One of this book, specialists in the field present the typical forms of shade-providing construction as well as the design approach associated with each. Part Two presents easily consultable overviews of 140 plants that have proven to be effective givers of shade in temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. Part Three presents thirty built projects by celebrated architects and landscape architects from five continents. These constructions illustrate a wide variety of functions and scales and cover various climatic zones and cultural contexts. All structures are constructionally and systematically analyzed with texts, true-to-scale drawings, and photographs from their foundations to their connections and the shadows they cast.