Between Light and Shade, Transparency and Reflection

Through the five senses, architecture, an activity of both the body and the mind, gains its reality into the world. It is built up thanks to creations, discoveries and inventions, and inserts itself into art, sciences as well as engineering.After defining the knowledge base that supports his work, Philippe Samyn invites you to a stroll where materials (transparent, diffusing or reflecting/stiff or flexible/waterproof or permeable) and the elements of construction (structure, single or multiple skin, screen…) discuss, in their environment, with light and shade, transparency and reflection.Illustrated with a few of his constructions, this stroll leads to shadow lines, which are connected to the founding principles of building as they are linked to two founding concepts of the architectural form: “drawing” and “joint”. Philippe Samyn, associate member of the Académie royale de Belgique, is an architect, urbanist, structural engineer, and Doctor of Applied Sciences. He is the author, assisted by the architects and engineers of SAMYN and PARTNERS, of numerous public and private buildings.