Processos de Ilusão em Arquitectura - alguns pontos sobre a manipulação da perceção

Abstract

The present dissertation has, as a starting point, the understanding that, in the physical world, appearance can be taken for reality. The human cognition absorbs, in a narrow way, the "distorted" information captured from a given realm in order to be mentally acknowledged, while illuding the observer and his spatial experience. Assuming this, the theme "illusion" is imported into architecture to then apprehend its operative value when qualifying spaces. During the design process, the architect's notion of "perception" can be an important tool to manipulate the way by which future spaces are perceived. Consequently, the trick is taking advantage of the common man's limited spatial reading, by inserting an illusionary factor. Finally, when clarifying the gap between reality and fiction we explore, by architectural means, the processes to make something appear to have a measurable quality it does not have. In other words, to make a building or space seem taller, longer, wider and so on. With the add of a critical approach, the justification for using the illusions is argued by questioning the use itself, not considering the real dimensions of the built environment but the understanding we make of it.