L’ombra come processo sottrattivo

The essay examines the relationship between shadow as an expressive process and its connection to time. It highlights the reflections of Ensamble Studio on shadow and gravity, focusing on the notions of weight and mass. The discussion shifts away from the modernist materials that previously informed the themes of gravity and light in a dialectical relationship between the internal and external. Instead, it emphasizes a physical action executed through the weight of masses, which creates a significant material tension with space. This tension enables the observer to experience the physical and tactile weight of the architecture, through spatial excavation that is oriented toward individuals and the community: the Music Studies Center and the SGAE Headquarters in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Designing with shadow means engaging with the weight of millennial history, through the excavation of space, focused on the human being and the collective.