Lightforming by Sofia Sofianou is a shortlisted proposal in Buildner’s International Architecture Competition “The Home of Shadows”, in June 2026, envisioning a house of circular geometry in Rhikea, Greece, that is continuously reinterpreted through the changing conditions of Mediterranean light and the landscape. The project uses a rigid grid as both structural framework and light filter, contrasted with a circular volume and curved surfaces. As sunlight shifts throughout the day, shadows transform the architecture, continuously reshaping its spatial and material expression.
Under the Mediterranean sun, this house in Rhikea is meant to reinterpret geometries through new spatial forms -geometries that are drawn through shadows and light.
Shadows are not just the manifestation of disappearing light, but the expression of shaping form.
These forms transform through time; they are soft shapes that project and intersect with rigid structures. Two rigid forms, the strict grid, as well as the circularly defined volume, are inscribed into the landscape of Rhikea. Their relation is temporary and lingers in restraint. The new forms are produced during midday through the shadows that are cast by the shed. In the afternoon, these geometries disappear, and they transform into a softer mass that almost dematerialises and loses the perception of the grid. Over the course of one day, the structure of the grid dissolves, it becomes a uniform surface that covers gently the topography of the site. At night, all these forms are erased, in order to be rediscovered the next day with the morning sunlight.
The grid as a filter of light
This project is generated by the inspiration of how a generic design tool, such as the grid, transforms into a rigid structure that shapes light. The grid establishes the structural and spatial order of the circular volume. It regulates the relationships between spaces while filtering sunlight and projecting changing shadows onto the interior surfaces. In this way, the grid becomes more than a structure: it defines space through the light it admits and the shadows it produces.
Walls and floors-projected surfaces
The curved and flat vertical interior partitions play a supplementary role in the project, amplifying the importance of the cast shadows and generating a new vocabulary of shapes. A single source of light behaves differently when it meets a flat surface than when it encounters a curved one. The way light meets each surface becomes essential, as the projected shadows change according to the geometry beneath them. The landscape activates these relationships between the source of light, the grid as a filter, and the projected surfaces.
Approach and strategy
The inspiration came from observing how light behaves in curved projected surfaces.
Experimenting with grids, flat and curved surfaces, this house is a product of exploring natural sunlight.
The main approach is to use the grid as a tool that becomes both the filter and the structural framework, with the columns and partitions generated as a continuation of its logic. The grid then encounters another system: the circular volume, which challenges the rules dictated by the orthogonal order. This contrast is central to the project, producing shadows that shift from line to curve as the surface beneath them changes.
Materiality
The materials are deliberately chosen in order to demonstrate a blank canvas that is ready to gather all the moments of the sun. As the sunlight moves, these moments vanish, and they are replaced by new moments. Soft materials are coming as an additional layer of filtering, fabric curtains that soften the geometry with movement.
Relation to Nature
Nature continues through the site, with the house acting as a framework that accommodates and reveals the landscape. Its strict geometries are inscribed within the existing topography, allowing the natural surroundings and the architecture to become part of the same continuous spatial condition.
Lightforming proposes an architecture that is not defined solely by its physical geometry, but by the temporal phenomena that occur upon it.
The building becomes a device for capturing, filtering, projecting, and transforming sunlight.
Its forms are therefore never entirely fixed: they shift from line to curve, from solid to shadow, and from rigid structure to an almost immaterial landscape. The architecture is experienced not as a static object, but as a continuously changing field of light and shadow.
The project was shortlisted in Buildner’s “Home of Shadows 4” international competition in June 2026 and it was further developed following the competition submission.
Facts & Credits
Title Lightforming
Typology Architecture competition
Year 2026
Organiser Buildner
Distinction Shortlisted
Location Rhikea, Greece
Design Sofia Sofianou
This project was submitted to Archisearch through the “Submit a Story” feature, where architects, designers, and creatives are invited to share their work for publication.