The Right to Shade (Direito à Sombra) is an interdisciplinary project that investigates shade as a social-environmental right. It combines data visualization, AI-driven analysis, artistic experimentation, and collaborative methodologies to propose tangible, low-tech interventions grounded in local knowledge and environmental data.

With many outcomes, it created a geography of shade: an open-source digital publication that documents and disseminates the research process of custom-built software, cartographic experiments, and scientific methodologies developed through the investigation.

Access it here.

Focused in Fortaleza, Brazil, the city functions as a test case, where methodologies and processes can be adapted to different contexts, investigating shade as a form of justice.

A person standing in the shadow of a wiring pole to avoid solar radiation in Fortaleza, 2026.

Fortaleza 15-minute bus accessibility shadow map at 11 am, 2026. Map by Paulo Costa.

Research process screenshot, 2025.

Spotted a tree casting a shadow on the sun.

This project was developed within the framework of Mormaço: Art, climate, and resilient ways of living in cities, which was part of the S+T+ARTS Buen-Tek program, co-funded by the European Union, under the STARTS - Science, Technology and Arts initiative of DG CNECT (GA no. LC- 03568052). The program was supported by Sony CSL Rome and Unifor and was held from September 2025 to March 2026.

Details about the interdisciplinary team are on the project’s website.