Architectural Parallax: Spatiality and Culture Within Movement by Roym

Architectural Parallax: Spatiality and Culture Within Movement by Matthew Roy [Bachelors of Science in Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology, 2016] Submitted to in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, April 2017

.......................................................................... Author Department of Architecture

.......................................................................... Certified by [Aaron Weinert] Thesis Supervisor

.......................................................................... Accepted by [Kelly Hutzell] Director of Graduate Program

ÂŠ2017 [Matthew Roy]. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to Wentworth Institute of Technology permission to reproduce and to publicly distribute copies of this thesis document in whole or in part using paper, electronic, and any medium now known or hereafter created.

Plagiarism Statement Plagiarism is the submission or inclusion of someone else’s words, drawings, ideas, or data (including that from a website) as one’s own work without giving credit to the source. When sources are used in a paper or drawing, acknowledgment of the original author or source must be made through appropriate references (footnotes, endnotes) or if directly quoted, quotation marks or indentations must be used. Even if another person’s idea, opinion, or theory is paraphrased into your own words, you can be accused of plagiarism. The same holds true for drawings. Only when information is common knowledge may a fact or statistic be used without giving credit (https://www.wit. edu/catalog/2016-2017/academic-honesty).

Plagiarism is a serious issue and it is important for all to be able to rely on the integrity of student work. The use of content prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of papers or other academic materials constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism does not only refer to written work but also to computer data, drawings, sketches, design concepts, code, musical scores and visual arts. Plagiarism can be inadvertent, so please become informed about the forms it can take. While we are all using precedents and study the built work to get educated and inspired, it is not acceptable to use entire concepts or appropriate drawings, sketches, 3D models or any other representation thereof and claim them as your own.

I, .........................................................................., am aware of the serious nature of plagiarism and of the fact that it includes design concepts, images, drawings and other representations beyond the written word. I will not intentionally use someone else’s work without acknowledgement and will not represent someone else’s work as my own. Signature.......................................................................... Date..........................................

“In the beginning, we are simply infused with movement – not merely with a propensity to move, but with the real thing. This primal animateness [sic], this original kinetic spontaneity that infuses our being and defines our aliveness, is our point of departure for living in the world and making sense of it.” –Maxine Sheets Johnstone

To everyone that has helped me get to where I am today. I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped me see this book through to completion, to those who provided support when I needed it, to those who listened to my ideas, and to those who are still my friend after it all finished. I could not have done it without you.

Acknowledgement

A person's true knowledge and understanding of a space or place is not predisposed or merely an assumption of the spatial and cultural context, but a direct result of the linkages between the individual and the space caused by their own action. Movement through architecture becomes a tool for understanding the space-user relationship as well as a sense of place through the implementation of parallax notions in architecture and fosters the relationship between users and the built form. The relationship between a person, architecture, and the surrounding context is largely misunderstood and quite often disregarded by pedestrians. Through the framing of specific views, the layering of perspectives, and specified material application the notions of the parallax in architecture informs an understanding of the dialectic between the user, culture, and context of the existing site by encouraging pedestrian movement throughout the built space.

Abstract

Table of Contents

12 14 17 18 18

25 26 27 29 32

36 36 56 78

Introduction Glossary of Key Terms Thesis Statement + Relevance Argument Discursive Images

Literature Review Haptic Feedback Motion Parallax Siza

Design as Research

Framed Investigation Design Process Method

104

Reflection & Critical Evaluation

106

Bibliography

108

Images Sources

Table of Contents

Glossary of Key Terms

Parallax Gap:

Architectural Parallax: 1. Slavoj Zizek, “The Architectural Parallax,” in The Political Unconscious of Architecture: Reopening Jameson’s Narrative. Ed. Nadir Lahiji (Surrey, Ashgate, 2012), 253.

Within architecture, the parallax stands as the apparent displacement of an object that is caused by a distinct change in observational position that provides a new line of sight. Philosophically, the difference in perception is no longer subjective,

according to Slavoj Zizek, “due to the fact that the same object which exists ‘out there’ is seen from two different stations, or points of view. It is rather that, as Hegel would have put it, subject and object are inherently ‘mediated’, so that an ‘epistemological’ shift in the subject’s point of view always reflects an’ ontological’ shift in the object itself.”1

Inscribed within the architectural parallax is the temporal element of motion. According to Slavoj Zizek: “the parallax gap in architecture means that the spatial disposition of a building cannot be understood without the reference to the temporal dimension: the parallax gap is the inscription of our changing temporal experience.”3 It is defined by this motion where the changing perception of the user is the result of their changing relative position in space over a specific period of time.

Discovery:

Movement: 2. Karen A. Franck and Bianca R. Lepori, Architecture from the inside Out: From the Body, the Senses, the Site, and the Community. (Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2007), 55.

Path:

3. Zizek, “The Architectural Parallax,” 255.

The architectural parallax and the understanding of spatial relationships has its roots directly in the movement of the user. The human body is a process of movement and adaptation to a space. Karen Franck asserts: “It is through movement that we perceive and understand the world,” because it is through deliberate motion that an interaction between user and space is created.2

Uvedale Price asserts that: “intricacy in the landscape might be defined, that disposition of objects which, by a partial and uncertain concealment, excites and nourishes curiosity.”4 This provocation of curiosity encourages movement throughout the space and results in a better understanding of the gestalt view of the building.

4. Yve-Alain Bois, A Picturesque Stroll Around “Clara-Clara,” 29 October. (Cambridge, MIT Press, 1984), 43.

The path through a space is typically thought of as a void or an absence of a solid within a mass. It is a void that is ready to accept human movement - it depends on and unites the surfaces of the forms that front it. Making decisions while on the path becomes important when understanding the spatial relationships of a built form. It forces an awareness of space that is not otherwise present in a path that does not require decisions.

Glossary of Key Terms

Thesis Statement: Through the framing of specific views, the layering of perspectives, and specified material application, the notions of the parallax view in architecture fosters an understanding of the dialectic between the user, culture, and context of the existing site by encouraging pedestrian movement throughout the built space.

Relevance: 2. Karen A. Franck and Bianca R. Lepori, Architecture from the inside Out: From the Body, the Senses, the Site, and the Community. (Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2007), 55.

The human body has a propensity to move and as a result, our process of spatial understanding is due to the development of the ongoing linkages between distinct perspectives. It thrives on movement because that is what it is designed for, so consequently, the path through, around, to and away from a space becomes extremely important because it can start to provoke the experiential, curiosity, and an understanding. According to Karen Franck: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is through movement, posture, and activity that we engage with the world. We are not so much in space as of space.â&#x20AC;?1 So, would that stand to reason that architecture should be designed with user movement at the forefront of the design process? That would allow it to become the choreographer of our progression through space by encouraging us to move in particular directions and adopt certain positions. The distinct, differing perspectives and the movement between them, known as the parallax and parallax gap would stand alone as the identifying factors that begin to dictate how we perceive space and how we begin to move through it.

Thesis Statement + Relevance

Argument: An individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement through space serves as a catalyst to the understanding of the spatial disposition of a building as well as the sites inherent culture and history. The establishment of this understanding lies in the implementation of the architectural parallax where the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement prescribed by a path, combined with the temporal element of motion allows for multiple, distinct perceptions of form. The difference between these perspectives, a dialectic synthesis of opposites, known as the parallax gap, defines time as space in the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach and eventual movement through the building generating a comprehension of form within the space-individual relationship. 18

Discursive Images

Tilt the book to view this photo from a different perspective. This distortion, known as anamorphic text, becomes an example of the parallax as the understanding of the image is derived from the differing perceptions when one tilts the book. 22

Discursive Images

Space r

The Architectural Parallax: Spatiality of Movement

pti

rce

tio

p ce

The understanding of space and its implications are often thought of subjectively and in terms of the phenomenal aspects that a space can evoke in a person. However, clear distinctions need to be made between the subjectivity and objectivity of space because the variances are essential pertaining to the design of a built form. It can be difficult to understand the objective aspects of space as a whole, but when broken down into its kit-of-parts, it is possible for an architect to design a building with user understanding of space at the forefront of the design process. Spatiality of movement, curiosity, and the importance of path define how space is understood. The summation of these parts can be viewed as the architectural parallax. The definition of the term ‘parallax’ lies in its Greek root: parallaxis, meaning “change.”1 Architectural change defines the differing perception of space or object in relation to an individual’s relative position in a field. From here, space can be dissected and turned into a simple, understandable concept when studied through the lens of the human body and how it moves in relation to the built form. The human body has a propensity to move and, as a result, a person is always moving, even when they do not realize it. 1

Yve-Alain Bois, “A Picturesque Stroll Around ‘Clara-Clara,’” In October. Vol 29. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984), 40.

Literature Review

Whether it be walking, running, or other forms of motion, the way an individual perceives the space they inhabit is constantly changing, thus creating an understanding of space as more than a sum of its parts. With this in mind, user movement within a built form becomes a tool for understanding the space-individual relationship. Through the concept of parallax, the path becomes a catalyst for the understanding of the spatial relationships between the user and architecture. A space defines the speed, rhythm, and cadence to the way a person moves, as well as what they are allowed (or not allowed) to view from their position in space.

Haptic Feedback:

The overall design of a building is a stimulus for the movement of the people who use it. Robert Yudell, an architect and contributor to Body, Mind, and Architecture, describes this stimulus as the “haptic interaction of the body with built form.”2 The term “haptic,” or any sort of interaction involving touch, is one of the most common ways that a user experiences and understands the place they inhabit. Imagine running a stick along a picket fence, or playing hopscotch on the sidewalk as a child.3 These actions create a rhythm and a cadence to the way a person moves, an ebb and flow between the aggregate of speed, direction, and the way the human body reacts to the haptic feedback specified by the separations in the fence or the lines on the ground. When translated into the building scale, these ideas become the main focus of spectator attention when moving along a path through the space and they start to define how one moves. Using the example of ballet dancers, who tend to speak about ‘feeling space,’ Yudell writes of the haptic experience as a way to articulate a felt interaction with the positive form as opposed to merely actions of reflex.4 Dancers feel space through the push, pull, and holding of solid objects, or pieces of space, and move through it with the consideration of gravity and its effects on their body at the forefront of their dance moves. It serves as a way to condition them to a point where their movement is no longer vague or indefinable. This is a key idea in the comprehension of the space-user relationship because it conveys an articulated interaction between the individual in space as

Figure 1 - Rudolf von Laban’s three planes of movement.

opposed to one that is unintended. Similar to the studies of Rudolf Laban, a pioneer for graphically noting the movements of dance and has described movement in terms of three planes: “frontal,” “vertical,” and “horizontal,” dancers understand their body in space through their center of gravity, where the three planes meet (see Figure 1).5 In architectural space, however, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of Laban’s study are of more relevance. Within the vertical realm, our body becomes the communicative piece in the polarized relationship between earth and sky. Movement along the horizontal plane becomes the zone of communication and interaction with the building as well as other people. In Mark Johnson’s essay on the embodiment of architecture, he cites Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, a philosophy teacher at the University of Oregon, to back his asserted claim that the information a person receives about a space is a direct result from their ability to move through it. She states:

Motion:

In the beginning, we are simply infused with movement – not merely with a propensity to move, but with the real thing. This primal animateness [sic], this original kinetic spontaneity that infuses our being and defines our aliveness, is our point of departure for living in the world and making sense of it, 6 making the connections between movement with the belief that it is

Robert J. Yudell, “Body Movement,” in Body, Memory, and Architecture, ed. Kent C. Bloomer and Charles M. Willard (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 59. 3 Ibid., 60. 4

Ibid., 58.

Ibid. Mark L. Johnson, “The Embodied Meaning of Architecture” in Mind in Architecture, ed. Sarah Robinson and Juhani Pallasmaa, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2015), 45. 5 6

Literature Review

how one interacts with space. A person’s ability to move themselves within their environment, despite not being consciously aware of it at times, is a continuous experience felt within the haptic feedback that the space creates. This feedback, as a result, informs the rhythm of movement within a space, but does not mean the interaction between individual and the spatial form is not devised.

Figure 2 - Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International (1919-1920) spirals diagonally upward to allude to a possible movement through the structure.

Even though it is possible to create such a haptic response with relative ease, it has been all but lost in much of today’s architecture. So, if eliciting a haptic response as a way to stimulate movement is as simple as implementing the repetition of form and rhythm of space in a building, why is it not one of the most important design principles used in contemporary architecture? Yudell describes this discrepancy in the lack of planned, haptic space in today’s architecture as a: “typical curtain wall skyscraper. Its potential for pulling us into the realm of a movement or sound game is almost nil. We can neither measure ourselves against it, nor imagine bodily participation,” clearly asserting that a lack of haptic experience creates a discrepancy in the relationship between user and the space that they inhabit.7 This disconnect happens because, according to Karen Franck, a professor of architecture and coauthor of Architecture from the Inside Out, movement is the way, “that we perceive and understand the world.”8 Haptic experience is how a person understands the relationship between an object and him or herself; it provokes a physical interaction with the positive form, or object in space. Not only is built form a stimulus for movement, but it is a stage for it as well. People engage with the world through their predisposition to move. In the eyes of Franck: “we are not so much in space as of 7 8

Yudell, op. cit., 61.

Karen A. Franck and Bianca R. Lepori, Architecture from the inside Out: From the Body, the Senses, the Site, and the Community. (Chichester: WileyAcademy, 2007), 55.

space,” meaning that the individual is part of the space they are in, which is a pivotal piece of the puzzle they are trying to understand.9 A building form can begin to encourage movement and sometimes even imply it. Here, the perceptual motion plays an undisputed function in the way a person experiences, understands, and moves through a space strictly based on the way it is formed. Johnson makes light of this idea in his comparison of architectural styles by asserting: “the flowing, playful, and sometimes incongruous angles and lines of various postmodern designs present a very different overall unifying quality than the austere, machine-like regularities and rectilinearities of modernist glass-wall box structures.”10 For example, when looking at Vladamir Tatlin’s unbuilt design for the monument to the third international (see Figure 2), a clear connection can be made between its form and the way a person may move through the space it begins to create.11 The spiraling glass and steel structure stretches toward the sky in a way that invokes a realization of the upward, centripetal movement of its implied path within the built form. It becomes an incitement to action, a stage which informs the way a body moves through the space. Movement is the missing link between the space and its inhabitant’s understanding of their relationship within it. It is described by Franck when she writes: The process of knowing and understanding are not representations of what is ‘out there;’ nor are they projections of what is ‘in here.’ They are instead ongoing linkages between inner and outer which involve, most importantly, acting in and upon the world or imagining such action.12 A person’s true knowledge of a space is not predisposed or merely an assumption of the spatial relationships, but a direct result of the linkages between an individual and space caused by their own action. It is a symbiotic relationship between human and the built environment. YveAlain Bois refers to Franck’s idea as the parallax in architecture in his work, A Picturesque Stroll Around “Clara-Clara.” He infers that the way we begin to experience and understand a space is through movement

Parallax:

Ibid. Johnson, op. cit., 45. 11 Yudell, op.cit., 66. 12 Franck and Lepori, op. cit., 55. 10

Literature Review

that results from the interdependence of the user and their interaction with that space.13 The term parallax, most often used in the study of astronomy to calculate the position of celestial bodies, describes the differing perception of an object or space due to the distinct perspectives that are formed based on an observer’s relative position and can be applied to the architectural realm of space. In its simplest form, parallax takes the scale of the human body. Humans have two eyes. Each eye is its own specific viewpoint with slightly different perspectives whose visual field overlaps the other, working as one to gain depth perception through the use of parallax. Even though it is still possible to have a sense of three dimensions with one eye, the conception of depth is not nearly as vivid. Alvaro Siza, Portuguese architect and Pritzker Prize winner, implements the notions of the differing perspectives in parallax specifically in his design of the Leça Swimming Pools in Matosinhos, Portugal (see Figure 3). The off-axis entry down into the bunker-like concrete and wood structure is the only piece of the interior space that is viewable by those on the street and it is not until one descends down the entry ramp and into the building that they can begin to understand the space as a sort of guided labyrinth of paths, each with its own specified destination. Figure 3 - Alvaro Siza’s Leça Swimming Pools (1966) - Photo by author.

The parallax in architecture comes into play when this circulatory path becomes not just a void, but an interaction between the individual and the positive form. It is the conjunction of each dissimilar perspective that aids in a person’s perception of the three dimensions. The difference between these mutually exclusive perspectives is known as the parallax gap. Slavoj Zizek describes this gap as: “not just a matter of our shifting perspective (from this standpoint, a building looks like 13

Bois, op. cit., 40.

this - if I move a little bit, it looks different),” and claims that there is also a temporal element within the movement of the user.14 It is a gap, or discrepancy between two or more places that facilitates the understanding of spatial form through the movement that links them over a period of time. This observed difference in perception of a space or object, according to Zizek: is not simply ‘subjective’, due to the fact that the same object which exists ‘out there’ is seen from two different stations, or points of view. It is rather that, as Hegel would have put it, subject and object are inherently ‘mediated’, so that an ‘epistemological’ shift in the subject’s point of view always reflects an’ ontological’ shift in the object itself.15 This idea infers that an individual’s shift in their knowledge of a space is a result of the ‘mediated’ interaction between the subject and object. As a result, this mediation causes an alteration in their understanding, meaning that it is directly rooted in the parallax of the architecture. Siza implements the concept of the parallax gap in his design of the pools at Leça da Palmeira by designing specific points of pause that define some of the distinct vantage points that the user can begin to piece together. This allows the individual to gain a more concrete understanding of the built form.

Figure 4 - Entry Path to Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects’ Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center at Wellesley College. (2005) - Photographed by © Timothy Hursley

The success of the application of parallax in architecture lies within the implementation of its philosophies in both the exterior and interior of a building, where partial concealment of the form becomes a priority of the design. Bois quotes Uvedale Price’s work, Essays on the Picturesque, as compared with the sublime and the beautiful, stating: “intricacy in the landscape might be defined, that disposition of objects 14

Slavoj Zizek, “The Architectural Parallax,” in The Political Unconscious of Architecture: Re-opening Jameson’s Narrative. Ed. Nadir Lahiji (Surrey: Ashgate, 2012), 253. 15

Ibid.

Literature Review

which, by a partial and uncertain concealment, excites and nourishes curiosity.”16 This curiosity stems from the ambiguity of space and form within one’s approach to and passage through a structure, a notion that is most easily tied to the architectural parallax through the writings of William Shenstone who states: “The foot should never travel to (the object) by the same path which the eye has traveled before. Lose the object, and draw nigh obliquely.”17 The oblique approach in this situation allows for the object to be ostensibly in motion alongside the observer, seen continuously from different angles. With each step along the designed path, pieces of the form are revealed and hidden in an ever changing discourse between the individual and a space. Evidence of this technique can be viewed at the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects at Wellesley college in Massachusetts (Figure 4). The architects focused on “a process of discovery” as a way to inform the building’s design, clearest when approaching the structure.18

Siza:

The paths Siza created on the beach in Matosinhos are delineated by the edges of the designed space (in this case the board formed concrete walls. See Figure 5). As a result, the user’s passage becomes an interaction with the built form, as opposed to just traversing the void. This movement becomes leads to one’s understanding of their relationship to the edge itself. In a 2007 interview with Juan Domingo Santos, Siza stated that, “architecture depends a lot on the organization of movements,” claiming that, similar to how a film maker creates a sequence with the changing of frames and rhythm of movement with his camera, an architect also needs to incorporate the movements of the user in space within their design.19 This claim poses an interesting notion about the formation of the edges of space, and how they play an integral role in a user’s understanding of their relationship to the human body in that space. Architectural edges, as a result, aid in the choreography of dynamic movement. In the case of Siza’s pools, they not only define the 16 17

Bois, op. cit., 43 Ibid.

Nancy Levinson, “Mack Scogin Merrill Elam angles its architecture toward the landscape and culture of Wellesley with the idiosyncratic Wang Campus Center.” In Architectural Record. (New York: McGraw-Hill, July 2006): 111. 19

Juan Domingo Santos, “The Meaning of Things: A Conversation with Alvaro Siza,” in El Croquis, 140. (2012):55, 59.

path and directionality through the site within the built form, but also specify and frame these directions through the views that they generate, encouraging an interaction between the users of the building. William Curtis, an architectural historian and Harvard graduate, asserts that Siza’s use of the edge in the Leça Swimming Pools project explores, “the experience of movement though different layers of opacity and transparency. Views and internal vignettes are orchestrated to guide the visitor through,” which explains the methodology he used to aid in the users grasp of spatial and programmatic relationships.20 Within the Siza’s designed path through the space, he creates points of pause that generate what Portuguese architect and mentor to Siza, Fernando Tàvora calls: “equally new situations in the spaceobserver relationship.”21 By using the dichotomies of the fixed observer versus the observer in motion, Siza is able to shift the building’s main focus toward the formation of an interaction between the user and the space they inhabit. These points of pause in his architecture allow the user to make decisions about the path they take through the space. Making decisions within the devised pathway is important when it comes to the understanding of the spatial relationships and the building form as a whole. These decisions impose an awareness of space that would not otherwise be present in a path where no choices are required. Denoting the importance of using designed paths to develop an awareness of the building through decision making, Yudell writes: “basic experiential differences have the most to do with the decisions that have to be made.”22 This claim directly relates to the implementation of the architectural parallax in Siza’s design and explains how the creation of a parallax in architecture can aid in the user’s understanding of the organization of the building. Designing the

Figure 5 - Pathway in Alvaro Siza’s Leça Swimming Pools (1966). - Photo by author.

William Curtis, “Alvaro Siza: An Architecture of Edges,” in El Croquis, 68/69. (1994): 33-34 21

Michel Toussaint, “Between Walls and Rocks,” in A Pool on the Beach, ed Michel Toussaint and Maria Melo (Lisboa: A+A Books, 2016), 23. 22

Yudell, op. cit., 86.

Literature Review

way someone moves through a building becomes not just an articulated motion, but a way of organizing space, “of making it legible and establishing relations,” according to Siza.23 Through the organization of a sequence, the form of the building and its path are able to become the positive form, the bits and pieces of solidness that delineate our perception of space, that the user interacts with and, therefore, a key factor supporting the use of parallax notions in architecture. It becomes a way of creating Yudell’s experience of haptic feedback, stimulating a rhythm of movement along a path without physical contact with the built space. Space is understood through movement. The human body’s propensity for physical motion, whether it be walking, running, or even the minute movements involved in turning one’s head, allows an individual to engage and interact with a space. The building becomes the choreographer of how one moves and uses the notion of the parallax in architecture to facilitate spatial understanding. Understanding requires action, and in the eyes of Robert Yudell, Karen Franck, YveAlain Bois, Mark Johnson, Slavoj Zizek, and Alvaro Siza, this action is defined by one’s motion to, through, in, and around a built space . Bois distinctly notes the parallax as the defining factor in spatial experience stating: “the former maintains a connection that allows it to criticize the latter.”24 These connections, derived from the distinct differences in perceived space through position and time, or the parallax gap, allow the user to further conclude how to interact and form relationships with the space they inhabit by becoming the stereopsis of architctural form.

Toussaint, op. cit. 33.

Bois, op. cit., 40.

Sight is the most important component to this thesis. Parallax is specifically based on the changing of perspective to create a whole understanding of an object or space. Literature Review

Design as Research

Framing the idea is a concept that is used variously in many different disciplines. In this scenario, it becomes an investigative look into architecture precedents that use movement as a driving factor behind how we perceive a space. Taking an in depth look at Alvaro Sizaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LeĂ§a Swimming Pools in Matosinhos, Portugal and Aires Mateusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum in Cais Cais, Portugal, we can begin to identify and study how they used their design to distinguish specific perspectives and the movement between them. 36

Design as Research

70Ë&#x161;

Motion Parallax While in motion, a person is able to perceive their relative position in a space through the parallax effect where close objects appear to move at a faster rate across their field of view than an object that is further away. They percieve depth through this comparison between ojects at multiple distances. A closer object appears to move faster across their field of view due to the le ssened distance that it has to travel to exit the field of vision. As a result, the motion parallax does not give the distance between the viewer an object but allows the viewer to perceive their spatial disposition relative to the object they are viewing. 38

Design as Research

Alvaro Sizaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s swimming pools in Matosinhos, Portugal, begins with an offaxis entry that descends down into the site. The user is presented with the first moment of pause along the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s path where the main space slips past the edge of the entry sp that it can only 40

be understood by moving through the space and making a distinct decision on what path option to take.