Abstract

This article explores the relationship of architectural skins with images when its matter includes photography, upgrading its level of information beyond regular tectonics, interfering with observer’s perception by fusion. Herzog & de Meuron developed a series of projects from 1988 to 1999 where they explored the consequences of different types of images printed on buildings searching for their potential as a constructive material. Only one of their projects dared to build with figurative images in depth—the Eberswalde library that became a perfect case study for researching the result of using figurative informed matter skins as a communication device. According to their complexity as an autonomous language, image-printed skins can be uncoded as artificial textures, encoded as texts, or super-coded as figurative images. The printed facade of the Eberswalde Library modifies the volume’s initial perception through its figurative prints and transmits a message, which intertwines the observer’s haptic experience with their memories according to their interpretation. We reveal through perception techniques the repercussions of super-coded skins, proving their value for design with full understanding of their denoted and connoted interactions with the city, the users, the space; and their tectonics as a tool in architectonic practice beyond their ornamental characteristics.