In Spanish, shade and shadow share the same word: sombra. During the Climate Shelter Residency, we were thinking a lot about both: how shade can make public space more liveable in extreme heat, but also how shadows themselves can become playful.

Following Get It Done's history of creating shadow-activated artworks in Blackburn and Estonia, we wanted to explore how nature could become a co-author of the playground. How could the sun play a part in designing the park?

With Estelle Jullian working with local schools, we delivered shadow-tracing workshops using local plants and objects, creating a visual language rooted in the surrounding landscape. The children's drawings were then cut from wood and transformed into playable objects: shadow casters.

The shadow casters became part of play boxes stationed around the site, with chalk and other tactile materials. Children could arrange them, play with the shapes, trace the shadows they cast or find plants around the park and capture entirely new ones.

As the sun moves, the shadows stretch, shrink and disappear, meaning the drawings can never be made quite the same way twice. The finished artwork is created together between the children, the objects, the plants and the sun.