Students in ARCHITECTURE ♥ MEDIA, a thesis-prep research studio taught by Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, spent a semester studying architecture through the lens of information theory. They were asked to consider the ways architecture can be used to transmit data — for instance, the way a cathedral interior conveys ideas about piety and religious history through its layout and ornamentation.

The Temple of Music, by Robert Fludd — an example of a figurative synoptic diagram. (Click to view a larger version.)

Timothy began by studying what he calls "figurative synoptic diagrams." This style of diagram, which was widely used in Europe during the Enlightenment era, allowed an illustrator to encode large amounts of information within a drawing of a landscape, a building, or another type of figurative representation. Timothy collected dozens of instances of these diagrams and categorized them according to their content. "I divided them into five categories based on similar structure, and then I took one diagram out of each category and I began to look at how the artist divided the information," he says.

He picked a few images for deeper analysis, which involved isolating them into segments and analyzing the ways different parts of each image convey information. "Essentially, the memory palace technique was used for these diagrams," he says.

(Click to view a larger version.)

The second phase of Timothy's research was an intensive study of the floor plans of some of the most informationally dense pieces of architecture in existence: museums and galleries. Using plans of the Sainsbury Wing of National Gallery, in London and the Museum Pio Clementino, in the Vatican, he analyzed the way a visitor would circulate through each space. "I began to unroll the main sequence through the space," he says. "I looked at how the geometry of the space affected the visual segmentation of the sculptures and how that impacted the way people would navigate through the space."

The Sainsbury Wing of London's National Gallery. (Click to view a larger version.)

For his thesis project, Timothy will take his findings and apply them to a virtual reality space, where architecture's relationship with information is so intimate that the two concepts are practically a singularity. "In virtual space, where there are no limits, you're left only with the formal strategy to help you navigate," he says.