Shadow-Makers is the first book to explore the power and cultural significance of shadows in architecture.

The making of shadows is an act as old as architecture itself. From the gloom of the medieval hearth through to the masterworks of modernism, shadows have been an essential yet neglected presence in architectural history. Shadow-Makers tells for the first time the history of shadows in architecture. It weaves together a rich narrative – combining close readings of significant buildings both ancient and modern with architectural theory and art history – to reveal the key places and moments where shadows shaped architecture in distinctive and dynamic ways. It shows how shadows are used as an architectural instrument of form, composition, and visual effect, while also exploring the deeper cultural context – tracing differing conceptions of their meaning and symbolism, whether as places of refuge, devotion, terror, occult practice, sublime experience or as metaphors of the unconscious. Within a chronological framework encompassing medieval, baroque, enlightenment, sublime, picturesque, and modernist movements, a wide range of topics are explored, from Hawksmoor’s London churches, Japanese temple complexes and the shade-patterns of Islamic cities, to Ruskin in Venice and Aldo Rossi and Louis Kahn in the 20th century. This beautifully-illustrated study seeks to understand the work of these shadow-makers through their drawings, their writings, and through the masterpieces they built.

"A meticulously researched, sensitive and intellectually stimulating enquiry into architecture’s darker side." - The Burlington Magazine

"Shadow-Makers is a thoroughly enjoyable read, a dense, evocative, and insightful reminder of qualities essential to the physical and intellectual enjoyment of architecture." - Architectural Theory Review

"Providing an important exploration on how shadows have been used for a variety of purposes (religious, psychological, spatial), Kite looks at architecture from the Baroque, through 19th-century Gothic revival, to early and late modernity … This book abounds with black-and-white illustrations supporting and highlighting the nuances of Kite's ideas. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers." - CHOICE

"Kite gathers an interesting ensemble of architects and architectonic works ... [he] creates a rich picture of the subject, almost like a mosaic." - Arkkitehti

"Kite’s is a searching mind – genuinely curious, fascinated and enthusiastic; attuned to the allegorical values of tectonics ... [Shadow-Makers is] a network of ideas drawn from politics, aesthetics, philosophy and cultural history, but always pivoting on the central narrative of architectonics wrought from darkness, shadow and shade." - Fabrications