Thursday Salute to Originals: Geometry Club
The point at which the edge of a building meets the sky is a frequent subject for design charrettes and the fodder of critique. Striking a hard edge where architecture ends and nature begins, the corner of a building is an opportunity for expression – an avenue for defining, differentiating, and impacting the view as our eye moves towards the sky. If you’re nodding along with this, and also happen to have a compulsive tendency for precise alignment, you just might be the perfect candidate for Geometry Club.
Geometry Club is self-described as a “curation of precisely aligned architecture photographs from around the world” that is displayed on Instagram. To become a part of the collection, an architectural photograph must meet two rules: 1) The apex needs to be aligned centrally on both the X and Y axis and 2) Edges should fall off the image at the same point, symmetrically. This diagram explains it all:
Using this simple and painstakingly rigid guideline, the collection has amassed views of buildings from across the globe, all from fan submissions. The common baseline uniting the compositions allows viewers to appreciate the global nature of building, and at the same time, highlight how style, form, and materiality merge into distinct expressions despite being molded into an identical photographic framework. The square format of Instagram provides the perfect platform to showcase the building snapshots.
Geometry Club, a group to which any alignment-loving architect would proudly belong! For playing on our love of the built environment – and that deep OCD that lies within many of us – we salute the creators of Geometry Club. But not just an ordinary salute, one with arms raised at strict 45 degree angles (in case someone may hold a protractor to us).
Image source: Geometry Club