Activating the Viewpoint

Abstract

This thesis examines the use of linear perspective drawings in the representation and realisation of architecture. Architectural anamorphosis is deployed to create an architectural space that engages the viewer in an active role of both perceiving and experiencing architecture. Linear perspective drawings dominate the representation and realisation of contemporary architecture. This unrivalled dominance has lead to the appropriation of linear perspective, and the assumption by many that linear perspective images represent reality. However, this is not the case. This study examines the use of linear perspective in architecture, and the viewing condition that it creates is exposed through the effect of anamorphosis. Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or representation of an image which, when viewed from a certain point, appears regular and in proportion. This effect is both a confirmation and a challenge to the rules of linear perspective. Anamorphosis uses linear perspective principles to highlight the objectivity of a linear perspective image while creating a subjective, embodied viewing experience. This effect has been used extensively in art to critique linear perspective; however, it has seldom been used in a similar critique of architecture. As there is no precedent for a formal technique of creating three-dimensional architectural anamorphosis, a process is developed and tested. In order to apply anamorphosis to architecture, linear perspective and anamorphosis are examined in relation to architecture. Ideas from anamorphic case studies are extracted, developed and applied to a series of experiments. Three-dimensional anamorphic design techniques from these are used in the design of a tram terminus. The result is an architectural anamorphic building with two privileged points of view that the commuter inhabits for a short space of time before the perceived image collapses. In the creation of this building, various factors arose that could be manipulated to render different results or improve the design. Not only is an anamorphic building created that examined linear perspective and engages the viewer, but a process for creating an anamorphic building is developed. This process reverses the current designing methods, and it suggests that there is the potential for architects to move from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional designing method. This could be achieved by using commonly available computer-aided visualisation tools currently focussing on linear perspective.