Informing Interiorities
Prototypical Investigations in VRML, Semesterarbeit. 1997
STUDIE
Columbia University New York, GSAPP
Entwurf, Semesterarbeit, 1997
Bei Prof. Hani Rashid
TEAM
Fawad Kazi
BESCHREIBUNG
Informing Interiorities
Prototypical Investigations in VRML – Virtual Reality Model Language
Internet
The confrontation with interactive virtual environments requires an extension of spatial understanding. The infinite variety of choises raises the demand for sensibility and criticism in the face of evergrowing commercial production. Are there specific phenomena existing that finally allow their incorporation to generate architectural expression? The internet might describe such phenomena. Originally conceived as a military data base then later used as a commercial billboard, it now defines a stage for cultural values. Anonymously, the hidden secrets of real life find their expression on the net. The notion of surfing the internet becomes a voyeuristic trip through the intimacy of the wired community of the web. Being exposed and observing along the way may describe that duality, a double-sided voyeurism, which the community seems to be addicted to.
By means of the increasing amount of webcam data the internet transforms reality, incorporating the outside world. A simultaneous presence in different locations determines visual perception as a redefined, disembodied condition. In comparison to the first reality where our body movement provides a linear perception, the virtual reality literally expands our visual senses. Perception is now conceived as a disembodied condition allowing for the fusion of multidirectional movements and thereby the reinterpretation of space and time.
House
A number of movie sequencies exposing the intimacy of the domestic realm were found on a Dutch webpage. Originally, the house is located in Amsterdam where the notion of voyeurism is typologicallly present. The project transforms interiority into a virtual context providing the possibility of revisiting the site by the visitor’s own interaction. Visual perception of a built spatiality generates a new spatial condition. By examining the model as a spatial artifact from an external viewpoint, multidirectional movements are perceivable. Interaction offers a close-up perspective of this interiority. Slightly transparent surfaces facilitate the idea of collapsing visual information and perception.
Domestic sounds determine an atmosphere of uncertainty. The visitor is confused, he might not be alone there. The notion of double-sided voyeurism achieves its ultimate state.
PUBLIKATION
ETH Zürich – Jahrbuch 1998, Lehre Forschung, Hg. ETH Zürich, Departement und Abteilung für Architektur, 1998, S. 102











