The Aesthetics of Augmented Space: Virtual Reality and Architectonic Perception

Abstract

Architecture is constantly confronting technological advances and new devices, particularly in the field of architectural aesthetics. Virtual reality implies a significant change in the perception of places and many aesthetic theories have been revolutionized in an attempt to understand the interactions between architectural space and virtual (augmented) space. This text proposes an “intermediate perspective” for decoding augmented space. Its central argument is that the new aesthetic paradigm, based on the somatic character of art, offers unprecedented formal and spatial experiences, breaking with the duality of art and technique and approaching the aesthetic and the technological in an integrated fashion.