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“In nature, shade and colours are fragmented, “organic”, sometimes moving fast, like the leaves of a tree in the wind
or ripples on a pond, sometimes slowly, like the shadow of a rock tracing the sun’s trajectory from East to West.”
“In construction, shadows and colours are geometric, the result of man-made designs. Their field of expression
is vast, ranging from three-dimensional volumes to large two-dimensional surfaces, and almost one-dimensional
strokes of colour.”
Philippe Samyn, Entre ombre et lumière, transparence et reflet, article for the Royal Academy of Science, Letters
and Fine Arts of Belgium
LIGHT, SHADE AND COLOURS A heliostat is a solar tracking device generally used to capture
the sun’s rays on a surface throughout the day.
The 6-metre-high folding doors of the rescue vehicle garages on
Level 1 let lots of light into the garage area. Philippe Samyn has been very innovative, integrating heliostats
into his projects for quite some time, beginning with his pro-
The 13-metre wide central light-well is too high for the sun’s rays posal for the ULB’s Erasmus Hospital in 1996 to the one for the
to reach down to the central atrium, with the result that Level 0 is Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki in 2014, via his draft for the
devoid of sunlight practically throughout the year. Polar Foundation in Toronto (Canada) in 2004, for the House of
European History in Brussels in 2010, and for a crematorium in
A heliostat (solar tracking) system is thus planned. Alost in 2012.
Heliostats proposed for the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki, 2014. (Ref. 01 | 819)
