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Impossible and Hyper-Real Elements of Architecture, by Carl Lostritto

Impossible and Hyper-Real Elements of Architecture
by Carl Lostritto

Publication Date: April 2023
Format: Softcover
288 pages
Publisher: Applied Research & Design
Size: 8″ × 10”
ISBN: 978-1951541552
Typeset in TT Norms Pro, Frauen, and Ogg
Cover art by Carl Lostritto
Book design by Pablo Mandel


How and why do architects, artists and designers manipulate reality? This book answers that question by examining what it means to render, draw, represent, and mediate the elements that make up and affect our digital and physical worlds. From pixels and rooms to gaming spaces and dioramas, this book exposes approaches to rendering that are equal parts instructive and critical. In the pursuit of the strange and the uncanny, digital media and software aren’t taken for granted, nor are they always used as intended. This journey is forward-looking about the emerging role of gaming engines, volumetric raytracing, and procedural shaders, but also looks back and samples from some ‘80s and ‘90s classics including MacPaint, DOOM, the Star Trek Holodeck and the film Predator.