Overview

This book investigates how immersive environments, across architecture, art, and media, shape spatial perception, cultural identity, and the construction of reality. It offers a spatial-psychoanalytical reading of virtual reality (VR), examining how architecture and representation engage with the body, sensorial experience, and subjectivity. Redefining VR as an experiential and spatial condition rather than simply a digital construct, the book traces its lineage from ancient fresco rooms to contemporary digital landscapes. Grounded in theoretical frameworks from psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and media theory, it explores how immersive environments function as extensions of the body and reflect a collective identity. Case studies, from Pompeii to the Metaverse, illustrate how architecture and representation shape our virtual experience. Rather than viewing VR as a new phenomenon, the book positions it as part of a longer trajectory in design and representation, shaped by evolving tools and technologies. It argues that the virtual spaces we create and the artifacts we choose to represent encode insights about identity, memory, and social conditions. This book is written for theorists, practitioners, academics, and students of architecture, art, and design. It situates architectural practice within the unfolding discourse on virtuality, identity, and the cultural implications of space-making.

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9781032733036

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Author Information

Tatjana Crossley is the co-founding partner of ArchiTAG, an architectural and research practice, and an assistant professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Her design leadership in both practice and academia fosters a diverse collective of voices and agendas, integrating culture, history, and place-making into the design process. Her work explores the technological dimensions of design, proposing new ways of perceiving and fabricating our built environments. She interrogates the representational mediums and the cultural and social implications of virtual spaces. Her applied research focuses on the sensorial and psychological dimensions of immersive spaces and VR, and she has lectured internationally on these topics. Prior to establishing ArchiTAG in 2019, Tatjana earned her Ph.D. from the Architectural Association, her MArch II from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and her B.Arch. from Rice University.

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