Mapping Shadows in Cities: The Solar Trajectory in Digital and Interactive Tools
Mapping Shadows in Cities: The Solar Trajectory in Digital and Interactive Tools
Understanding how shadows will act in and around an area is a necessary understanding to ensure greater spatial quality. Shadows can influence natural lighting – therefore, the perception of space – and also issues of thermal comfort. Thus, mapping your projections and visualizing their movements during each season of the year can be fundamental to improve your project. The good news is that there are simple tools that help you visualize this in your city and in natural environments.
To find out where the shadows are on a hot summer day or where to avoid them on a winter day, there are two interactive maps: Shadow Map and Shade Map.
These tools are easy to use: just access the website or mobile application of each map to view the location of the shadows throughout the day, being able to choose the date of the year and place in the world. Both use a gray color layer to show shaded areas based on both the local terrain and the height of nearby buildings, that is, they mark the shadow from natural elements like mountains to the architecture built at each location. In addition, it is possible to rotate the map to visualize the constructed masses in perspective and, with that, analyze different points of view on how the shadow interferes in the environment.
To use them, just put the desired data in the interactive bars. There is a control on the timeline that allows you to view shadow locations for any time of day and modify the date to understand how the shadow areas change during the year. By dragging this time control back and forth, the map automatically updates and, in a didactic way, demonstrates the movement of the shadow during the daily course.
