The Analytique Redu was a design problem methodology from the Ecole de Beaux Arts that combined the case study of a european classical building with a study in composition and proportion. In a single drawing, the student was required to combine a plan, section and elevation of the same building, along with selected details of specific elements into a single page composition that demonstrated the design coherence of the building at multiple scales. The last step in this process, after the research, composition sketch, and final drafting was to demonstrate their understanding of shade and shadow by rendering the final drawing with hatching.

SHADOW WORK expands, challenges and critiques the Analytique Rendu in two ways:

1) by changing its focus from european classical architecture to the neighborhoods and communities destroyed by “urban renewal” and “slum clearance” policies of the United States.

2) by incorporating an additional element in the composition, the dimension of time.

Students create an Analytique Rendu of a building at not one, but three moments in time: One in the past, One in the present, and one in the future. By composing a rendering of a single place at different points in time, we expand the histories and cultures that are revealed in the drawing, while creating the ability to draw connections and narratives into the conversation that would otherwise remain hidden and unexamined.