How daylight representation in architectural competitions images can lead to an erroneous interpretation of projects

The digital world we are living in today offers viewers an experience of buildings before they even exist. This experience is no longer just geometric or descriptive, but also sensory. It generates emotions through fixed or animated images of 3 dimensional objects inserted in an urban context. These images are produced by specialized agencies with specific tools allowing them to generate visual artefacts with a striking impression of realism. The light that bathes these scenes is carefully worked out in order to capture our gaze. We believe that, in some cases, this may generate errors of appreciation and that these representations can lead to questionable choices when they are used in architectural competitions. This paper proposes some keys to analyse these sublimated images and aims to give the reader the possibility to interpret architectural projects in a more realistic way.