What if a skyscraper cast light instead of shadow? Architecture firm NBBJ thinks it's possible, and has algorithmically-designed two London towers that reflect sunlight from their facades, illuminating each other's shadows and thus becoming "shadowless" buildings in the process.Shadowless designs could have seriously positive effects on a London skyline that, according to Wired, expects about 250 new skyscrapers. “The relationship between the sun and shadow is the relationship between the two buildings,” NBBJ design director Christian Coop explains. The key to their design is its wide top floors and concave reflective surfaces, adapted specifically to the sun's path through the sky at the buildings' proposed locations on London's Greenwich Peninsula.
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NBBJ predicts the "no shadow" structures will reduce shade by about 60% when erected in the near future.In the past, the firm has set its sights on smart designs that "celebrate, and protect what makes us inherently human," according to their website, resulting in The Green Factory in South Korea and Amazon's domed facilities in Seattle, WA. Check out images from their proposal for shadowless skyscrapers below:
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Visit NBBJ's website for more bright architecture ideas.Related:Monumental Women Transform London SkylineTornado-Shaped Skyscraper Could Touch Down in OklahomaLondon's New Bridge Might Be a Sci-Fi MasterpieceDubai Is Building the Museum of the Future