Being a body, having a body: Looking down and looking out in architecture and neuroscience

This essay explores the relationship between point of view and spatial perception in the context of architecture, architectural design and cognitive neuroscience. An account is given of body coordination and movement when managed from a quasi-allocentric position which questions the often-stated view that architects can mentally ‘walk themselves’ through the buildings that they have designed. In order to explore this topic, we devised a series of Virtual Reality games which used a labyrinthine arrangement to observe the reactions of invited participants while they were using either a perspectival viewpoint or axonometric projection on their headsets. Their performance was also further analysed by holding debriefing discussions with participants after each exercise. Conclusions are then drawn from the study that make wider references to neural plasticity, modes of representation during the design process, and also pointing to the need for further research in this and associated areas of study.