Designing for Irradiated Shade

Irradiated Shade is an ongoing project that develops a means of uncovering, representing, and designing for the unseen dangers of ultraviolet radiation within conditions of apparent shade—a growing yet under-explored threat to cities, buildings, and bodies. The project leverages its position in the US-Mexico borderlands, a vital testing ground in which physiological effects of solar radiation are rendered upon vulnerable populations. This paper will discuss: the design context, considerations for ultraviolet (UV) radiation as a complex design problem, the limits of existing design tools to address conditions of UV at a building scale, and the development of custom architectural design tools to improve the ability to visualize and combat UV exposure. The paper introduces an algorithmic drawing technique capable of mapping the built environment from the perspective of UVB scatter, producing spherically-projected sky dome maps indicating the risk of UVB exposure in a particular location to sensitize designers to this hidden danger.