Parallax brings dynamism to design

It was my final project review in second-year architecture at McGill University and a guest critic commented on my nice use of parallax in my project.

It's always an uncomfortable moment when you've done something you had no intention of doing but, because it was evidently a good thing, I accepted the praise, feigned an understanding of the word and quickly directed the topic to something else.

I went home that evening and looked up the definition of the word so the next time I employed parallax I knew I was doing it.

Parallax is defined as "an apparent change in the position of an object resulting from a change in position of the observer." Imagine sitting on a moving train and how objects in the foreground move across your field of vision much faster than those in the background, with distant mountains appearing stationary while utility poles clip by in a blur. The relative movement of these disparate visual elements created by the movement of you on the train is parallax.

Parallax is an interesting occurrence that may seem a little esoteric at first - in an architectural sense anyhow - but is a dynamic in design that if correctly used can bring a space to life.

Older homes with lots of enclosed rooms connected by corridors don't afford the observer much, if any, sense of parallax. Views are confined and opportunities are few.

But in more open layouts where enclosing walls have been removed (partly or completely), where columns, stairs or millwork begin to define living spaces, one will find that parallax becomes a discernible component of the design. Various elements within the plan will move relative to one another and their backgrounds, creating a sense of movement within the space.

Frank Lloyd Wright intuitively understood the dynamic nature of parallax and enhanced its quality by incorporating a hexagonal grid in the layout of a number of his homes. The oblique angles of the walls and components provided wonderful opportunities for diagonal views through the homes and increased the sense of movement between elements.

The concept of a diagonal view is important when thinking about parallax. Diagonal views are used in both film and theatre to add energy to a scene, and can be used in combination with parallax - as seen in Frank Lloyd Wright's work - to create dynamic architectural spaces as well. The perceived size of a rectilinear space will always seem bigger looking across the diagonal and the illusion can be used in a layout to make a modest space feel larger.

Understanding and utilizing the phenomenon of parallax in design is a wonderful way of bringing energy to a space.