The taller the skyscraper, the longer the shadow it casts — which doesn't always bode well for the people and businesses below.
Design firm NBBJ is hoping to change that by constructing an entirely shadowless skyscraper for London, which is gearing up for the addition of more than 250 tall buildings to the city's skyline in the near future.
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The firm used computer modeling and algorithms to create a pair of buildings that doesn't block out the sun at ground level. One building looks like a gigantic, curved mirror.
The glass surface of the northernmost building reflects sunlight down into the shadow cast by the southern building, and the curve of that glass allows the reflected light to follow the shadow throughout the day. The tower redirects and diffuses the sunlight, providing more daylight below.
With sunlight bouncing off one tower into the shadow of the other, there's a 60% reduction in shadows between the two skyscrapers, according to NBBJ.
NBBJ has previously designed buildings for Amazon, Google, Samsung and Microsoft.
Architects for the no-shadow building have Greenwich, south London in mind, but the firm says the software could help design similar skyscrapers in other dense urban areas as well. In order for the design to work elsewhere, one would just have to change the inputs for when and where the sun passes overhead at the location.
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This article originally published at Discovery News here