A considerable number of architects today use shadows to heighten the vivid quality of their buildings by means of the moving pattern of shadows. One of the most recent examples of this is the Herz Jesu Church in Munich by Allmann, Sattler and Wappner where, inside the glass outer shell, there is a lamella construction that breaks up the light pouring into the altar area into cast shadows and a network of shadowy lines.

Traditional Japanese architecture has been familiar for centuries with this method of filtering light through permeable and porous constructions or materials and breaking it up into shadows. In Zen Buddhism, it is at the interface of light and shadow that space comes into being.

Casa Wakasa Private Residence in Osaka, Japan by wHY Architecture

It is at this interface that Tadao Ando works. The rooms created by him draw their effect from a sense of depth and richness of shadows, which they owe to the Japanese tradition. His use of monolithic concrete walls makes this solid material appear as light as a feather, the reason for this is his knowledge of the tension that defines transitions and boundaries, where shadow has its starting point.

Koshino House by Tadao Ando (http://www.archdaily.com/161522/ad-classics-koshino-house-tadao-ando/)

Vitra conference pavilion in Weil am Rhein by Tadao Ando