Jordan Solet

Where there is form, mass, and structure there is also light and shadow filling and bending the space around it. Through my architectural designs, I strive to create spaces that change and are malleable by light and shadow. The use of windows to illuminate a room and frame the surrounding landscape is a vital component to my design. While the use of glass helps bring a person inside of a room closer to nature, I’m also drawn to how a window brings sunlight and nature inside to change the interior of a space. My goal is not to solely make a room larger or smaller with natural light and shadow, but experience or interpret how a space will feel and look with changing amounts of lights. I also attempt to incorporate elements pertaining to multiple senses. How will a window warm or cool a room with the inclusion of more or less light?

Additionally, I attempt to fill empty spaces, make them look “busy”, with shadows which don’t necessarily take up space. The way shadows are cast on the ground creating geometric or abstract images adds visual interest to a space that no construction method or material could ever recreate. My designs often include partial or entire ceilings made of glass purely to create designs of shadow on the ground. I feel that using shadows to fill space in a way that will change over time is like the way I see my thoughts and the ways ideas come in and out of my head.

For my work that is not architectural, I explore how objects and mass affect light and shadow in photography. My photographs often include aerial views of objects or spaces I find with stretching shadows or light filtering in through cracks. I am also often drawn to repeated patterns, colors, or ideas in photography. This is another representation of how I view thoughts and passing ideas through my mind. When I become interested in something, I’m amazed at how my brain finds ways to always connect all of my thoughts to an idea or problem plaguing my mind at the given moment.

I did not take these images with the idea of representing my thoughts at first, but overtime I came to realize why I was drawn to them and why I kept taking similar images. It’s relieving when you find a way to show others what’s going on inside your head and how you’re feeling.