Design Elements in Modern Architecture: Brise-Soleil

You may have seen my recent Instagram post on Conversation Pits, a modernist design element now completely out of fashion. Pity.

Much in fashion however is the Brise-Soleil – French for "breaking sun" and pronounced [breeze solay] – which in its original meaning is a wall with geometric cutouts or shading elements, preventing direct sunlight hitting a building while allowing ventilation. It might be a separating wall in a garden, or a curtain wall of a building, or even a system of louvers.

More recently, the term has also been adopted for any kind of shading structure allowing ventilation, be it vertical or horizontal – though for the latter, I'd disagree with calling it a brise-soleil.

Other typical design elements you'll find in modernist architecture I explain here.