Breeze-Block Office Facade

Breeze-Block Office Facade is an original illustration set in Dakar Peninsula, Senegal. It lies in the tropics, where the climate is hot semi-arid steppe.

A large screen wall of repeating hollow geometric blocks fronts an office building, with deep shaded windows visible behind the perforations. A broad concrete frame projects around the patterned facade. The light outside is intense; the interior reads as cool.

Why is the facade built from perforated concrete blocks?

The screen is a brise-soleil: it blocks direct sun before it reaches the glass while letting air pass straight through, which matters far more than insulation in a climate that is hot but breezy. Casting the blocks on site in repeated geometric units makes it cheap. This is mid-century modernism localised for the tropics — the frame is international, the screen is regional.

Terpano is a free daily geography puzzle. You study one original illustration, place a pin on a borderless terrain map, and see how close you were. There is no account and no sign-up; progress stays in your own browser. It plays in 11 languages.