Ax@Unit20

Kasper Ax, Unit 20 2009
Ecumenical Council, Turin

With the intention of overcoming the present exhaustion with form obsessiveness in contemporary architectural design, the project employs theories of visual perception into a computer aided design and manufacturing methodology, through which it aims to establish a unity between matter and manner in digital architecture. Constructed viewpoints are then created to infuse the spatial configurations with distorted and exaggerated perspectives as well as figurative means.

These viewpoints will then evoke the users cognition by creating associations and assumptions in the mind of the beholder as a combination of visual perception through frozen and dynamic moments. Essentially it is a 'soft' part of architecture that does not have any constructional or enclosing purpose, but has a reason that reaches beyond that and makes it sublime.

In the case of the interior of the Ecumenical Council of Turin, this theory is employed in viewpoints where certain panels in the ceiling are extracted and treated with a distinct materiality that enables the beholder to interpolate figures in the mind- such as the cross. A series of performative iterations were tested for the patterning of the interior council hall.

Difference in reflections and light take in would be needed in order to create an effect where the beholder can distinguish between chosen patterns and to create the perception principle of reiffication. Increasing and exaggerated densification of the spiky interior would likewise create a false sense of depth and encourage the user to alternately perceive the geometry of the interior in still and in motion.