Meta-Representation and Spatial Perception Towards a Taxonomy of Representational Bias

Abstract

This paper examines how diagrams, rendering, and atmospheric representational modes mediate architectural perception and experience. Through a comparative analysis of OMA’s Seattle Central Library (2004), BIG’s The Twist (2019), and Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Blur Building (2002), the study argues that representation functions beyond a communication tool as an active agent in shaping spatial knowledge. Each case illustrates a distinct mode of mediate: Seattle translates the conceptual diagram into an embodied paradox of clarity and confusion; The Twist collapses the gap between image and experience through digital fidelity; and Blur resists static forms of representations, existing instead as a living field of atmosphere that continuously evolves forced into representational limitations. Drawing from Robin Evans, Juhani Pallasmaa, Gernot Böhme, Mario Carpo and Benjami Bratton, the paper constructs a taxonomy of representational bias that clarifies how architectural images and media simultaneously describe and produce perception. The findings suggest that representation governs experiences as much as it depicts it – structuring how architecture is understood, navigated, and remembered. Ultimately, the project reframes representation as a site of architectural agency, calling for more deliberate use of its distortions to expand rather than limit the perceptual range of architecture.