e who design and construct and use buildings leave their marks there for others to see and read.Canterbury Cathedral in England, for example, will reveal to you much about the life, the beliefs and values, of the people who lived and worshipped there. It tells you a story quite different from the humanistic record of a building like the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. In like manner, a house in the countryside of Japan communicates a view of family and social life that is quite distinct from a house in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.THE THREE ILLUSIONS OF OF ARCHITECTUREBuildings (except for manufactured homes) are all built the same way: dig a hole, lay a foundation, build up the walls, put on the roof, fix up the interior. Buildings, however, do not look like they are built that way. Instead, there are three different illusions concerning how a building looks like it was made, and how it relates to the environment.1) Earth-restingMost buildings look like they sit on the earth, as it the earth were a stage for it. They look as if a big-enough hand could pick them up and move them elsewhere, like Monopoly-board or Lego-piece houses. This illusion, called earth-resting, occurs when a building exhibits the following traits:it is wider than it is tallit has only a few windows, which are usually small, meaning that there is more exterior wall space than window spaceit has materials that clash with the surroundings, whether in texture or colorEarth-resting structures look best on flat ground, worst on a hillside (where they look like they might slide down). A good example of this is the Palace of Versailles. Louis XIV envisioned his royal residence as a retreat from the distractions of Paris, the capital city. The overall design is much more inclusive than the enormous building (its width from tip to tip reaching 1,935 feet, approximately a third of a mile). The formal gardens and parks provide a type of "natural" environment,...
