122 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy
between cinema and architecture repeat themselves. All are perceptual experiences
that incorporate the variable of time related to image. The trip across an architec-
tural space is always made up of a sequence. A movie incorporates the sequence as
the foundation of its narrative construction. Nevertheless, in cinema, the spatial
sequence of the architectural trip is guided by the outlook of the director. Fixed
planes (fixing the eyes), zoom in (identifying a precise point in which the spectator
is led to focus on a determined element ), zoom out as the form to contextualize an
element starting from its own self, or the horizontal panning, as a way of counting
space sequentially and gradually, etc. One might analyze through framing, the planes
and the movements of the camera, the guided look of the director, the dictatorial
imposition of how he wants the spectator to see and perceive. If we were applying
the same criteria of spatial perception used by some cinematographic producers, the
source of inspiration for the architects is not minor at the moment they design their
work, considering the movement of the body, covering space in time.
The cinema or video are tools that produce "audio-visual" works. In contrast to
those that visualize virtual spaces used by architects, the audio-visual incorporates
sounds associated with an image in motion. In that way we can perceive the footsteps
on the smooth stone pavement, or the creaking of the wooden steps on climbing the
stairs. The inclusion of a sound-track brings us closer to the reality of our perceptions.
The recent phenomenon of democratization in the use of the audio-visual technol-
ogy, allows us to think about video cameras and editing equipment, now installed
in personal computers, as an attractive tool for students of architecture. The current
age is an age of an overpopulation of images. Young people grew up seeing a lot of
television, playing computer games, seeing videos, music, clips in which the speed
with which the sequences of consecutive images being generated, surpasses the
capacity of retention that any adult may be capable of processing.
The use of the video in the studio
In any creative process involving a "construction" with formal elements which con-
templates a certain expression and that provokes a relationship with the user, these
elements do not necessarily contemplate only one meaning. Therefore in the develop-
ment of an architectural project, speaking about “methodology” seems suspicious.
The process that implies tackling the aforementioned construction moves away
completely from the scientific method of traditional investigation. Already we are
speaking not only about information, nor about precedents contributed by others.
We speak about a representational system of ideas, concepts and wishes. To claim
that the form of a pillar, a door, the colour and texture of a material, or the sound
of our footsteps, does not have an intention would be ingenuous.
Therefore, the first premise is that everything chosen as material, form and pro-
portion, constitutes a given position of the architect.
Although this premise is applicable to a scientific investigation, in the case of a
construction with significant elements the process is more complex. We can no longer
say that the meaning of every element itself is the only thing that plays a role. The
intention of the architect is also determined by the sum of the elements, and what