With an emphasis on sustainability , The new addition to the New York developer's Morpholio Trace application helps users "create accurate and informative shadows across any drawing.
On March 22, through a press release, the New York–based developer Morpholio announced the launch of the Shadow Maker tool for its Morpholio Trace application.
For centuries architects, designers, and landscape architects have been honoring the importance of light and shadow as well as a building’s position relative to the sun in the design process. From the solar aperture in the Pantheon, to the celebration of the solstice at Machu Picchu, to the modern solar home and contemporary innovators of sustainability, the solar positioning of a building, landscape, or space can define not only how it performs but also how architects communicate meaning and design intent.
The new tool which allows architects to add and adjust a true solar position, in real time, to create accurate and informative shadows across any drawing.
“This tool is game changing for designers.” says Toru Hasegawa, Morpholio co-founder, “Architects can now instantly overlay their model with accurate, geo-located shadows to set or sample sun patterns and immediately use their impact to draw, sketch or design.”
With an emphasis on sustainability becoming more important every day, Shadow Maker brings these tools further into all phases of the design process, by showing how building shadows impact an existing context, testing interior spaces and courtyards, revealing the impacts of a neighboring building, or simply expressing the beauty and depth of a design. “Anyone who has spent time trying to interpret shadows into a drawing knows that it is not always intuitive,” says Anna Kenoff, Co-Founder “Shadow Maker effortlessly fuses building form, solar location, date and time into one equation for real design representation.”
Morpholio Trace has two features for creating shadows and setting Solar Positioning.
01. Map Location Mode “Map Location” combines Apple Maps technology and solar algorithms to allow you to designate a specific date, time, and place to see the precise shadows of that region. As you change the time, date, and north designation you can watch the shadows move in real time to help design and decision making.
02. Free Mode With Shadow Maker’s “Free Mode” designers can also go off the grid and adjust or test shadows manually. “It’s for that moment when you are testing a quick concept or trying to achieve a specific effect,” says Joey Swerdlin, Morpholio Community Director, “For example, when testing a curtain wall detail, integration of landscape, or façade options, Free Mode gives architects the ability to adjust the shadows to amplify the intent or subject of any scheme.”
ARCHITECT STAFF