ABSTRACT
Shadow contains but it can also be contained. Shadow containers can provide us with cool places out of the hot sun. A simple box or completely enclosed room contains shadow. The moment before a performance, when the lights have been extinguished, an auditorium is one large contained shadow waiting to be broken by the lights revealed when the curtain rises. The audience, shrouded in darkness, continues to sit in the refuge of its contained shadow throughout the performance, witnessing the action through a shadow frame. Shadow is sometimes described as a pool; things can swim together in its water. Escaping agoraphobic exposure to a large and sublime landscape into the refuge of a dark cell is one of the timeless architectural experiences. Shadow contributes to the poetry of architecture. Like most architecture the Lincoln Memorial is something of a solar clock.
