In last night’s architectural training, we learned about Greece, Rome, and Classical architecture

We also learned about the development of the Greek agora into the Roman Forum. The former is characterized by figural object buildings on an open field, the latter by figural spaces carved out of the urban fabric. This shift is referred to as a figure-ground reversal and is best illustrated by Rubin’s Face-Vase optical puzzle or the well-known woodcut by M.C. Escher, “Sky and Water I.” These images play with how the eye uses edges to perceive shapes; an effect first studied by Gestalt psychologists at the beginning of the 20th century.

In the 3-D world of architecture buildings can be perceived as objects or as background, and sometimes as one then the other. Our friends at KlingStubbins wanted to create a decorative element for Autodesk’s Waltham headquarters that would oscillate between states as desired.