The boom in skyscrapers is good for elevator manufacturers, but can be bad for residents who have to live in the shadow (literally or otherwise). Using computer-aided design and some seriously big mirrors, architects in London have come up with a plan to build a pair of skyscrapers with no shadow at all.
As Wired reports, the proposal from NBBJ uses a pair of skyscrapers, whose curved surfaces act like mirrors, reflecting sunlight back at each other to remove any shadow at all. This isn’t like another famous sun-reflecting skyscraper in London — the reflected light would be diffuse, and not able to, say, melt cars or fry eggs.
Rather than the traditional idea of architects sitting down with a big sheet of paper and sketching cool-looking shapes, the design process apparently involved tweaking a computer model, until the designers had something that had no shadow, but didn’t look completely hideous (and would still stand up).
The full report is worth a read — both as an insight into the design process behind iconic buildings these days, and also a look into a technology that may be coming stateside in the future. [Wired]
Image credit: NBBJ