The Analysis of Visual Functioning in Buildings

Buildings engage us visually in ways that seem to be deliberately designed. This is particularly true of architecturally significant examples, of course, but is broadly true of all buildings. We outline a methodological approach, synthesized through a series of independent studies of visual form of buildings over the past two years, that is aimed at understanding how buildings seek and maintain visual attention. The primary motivation in developing this line of inquiry is morphological, driven by the premise that buildings are shaped as much from this demand of visual functioning in buildings, as from demands of generic function. A theory of visual functioning of buildings is therefore an integral aspect of the morphology of buildings. We propose that visual engagement with buildings can be understood at two levels. The preconditions for visual engagement are set by our general perceptual tendencies according to which we parse the world in a rule-bound, constructive, manner, using selective cues to organize the flux of received visual information into configurations of stable entities. Riding on top of this mechanism for visual perception is our capacity for imaginative viewing, whose functioning is still not well understood. We argue that architects create visual interest in buildings (and if successful, an imaginative engagement) by systematically suppressing or enhancing cues which we use in order to parse the world and draw upon four case-studies in order to illustrate a few critical points of our argument.