Architectural Complexity: Hiding the Underlying Order

We see buildings but, do we understand their geometry? This paper is a perceptual approach to the comprehension of architectural composition. As we know, Gestalt psychology is concerned with the principle of simplicity in our perception, understanding by this the way simple patterns are “easier to see” because we are inherently predisposed to find them. Gestalt principles tell us the characteristics that a figure or group of figures should have to be considered simple: continuity, closure, similarity, proximity, etc. We compose our visual world of the simple elements we find in it. Every shape would in theory be reduced to simple collections of interconnected shapes. But, while simple things are easily visible, and therefore easily comprehensible, there are some kinds of patterns, the complex ones, which are difficult to see and to comprehend. We will focus on those designs that evade to be simplified and that does not allow us to use the Gestalt laws that help us in perceiving normal objects, therefore making us difficult the creation of a mental idea of their composition. This paper is about complexity of conception and difficulty of perception. We will focus on the ways we can “hide” the ordering principles of architectural shapes. All ordered structures are susceptible of complication, and in architectural compositions ornament has an important role. 1. Simplicity and our mental description of things Through visual perception we organize and localize objects in space, we do this by making hypotheses based on the information we receive through our eyes. These Hypotheses are the simplest possible interpretations of the retinal images, as Gestalt psychology state. We can easily see figures above a ground, see depth in our three-dimensional world, or group similar o nearby figures. Nevertheless our process of interpretation of shapes does not finish there; we can also hypothesize about the ordering principle of the objects we see. Going up to a higher cognitive level we are able to understand shapes as extrusions, revolution surfaces or as patterns made by connecting different pieces in space. We are not talking about perception but the construction of a mental idea, a description or conception based on the objects that we see. To conceive is to comprehend the shapes, to understand how they have been created, and in the case of ordered structures, it is about understanding the restrictive