Inclined Planes and the Oblique Function as a Resistance to Gravity

Abstract

Initially constructed for raising objects from one level to another with less effort, the science of inclined planes as simple machines was discovered in the Renaissance period, with their mechanical advantages of prior importance and secondly, linking spaces at different levels both in landscape architecture, interior spaces and in architecture. Although inclined planes are used in many places, in today’s architectural spaces, studies on the perception of the inclined planes are few in architecture; they have also been discussed in psychology in the context of the “oblique effect” since the 1970s. Transgressing functionality of access from levels in a space, inclined spaces can be regarded as places of habitation as they have a polyvalence spatiality that evokes emotions and different behaviour and movements of the body. The inclined plane provides kinaesthetic perception and motion and provides triggers and dynamism in space. As gravity-defying circulation elements that stimulate the viewer’s mind and their movement through proprioceptive senses, this article focuses on the perception and the sensations of the inclined planes with an emphasis on Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s oblique function through its evolution in history within a theoretical approach to the relationship between architecture and movement.

Keywords:

• Inclined planes
• oblique function
• gravity
• kinaesthetic perception
• deformation

Notes

1 In a similar research, Spence et al. (2019) focused on measuring the aesthetic preferences of gastronomic plates inspired by Kandinsky and prepared by the chef, with dishes arranged in an oblique arrangement among a group of participants. According to the research, linear food elements were preferred more when they rose to the right than left, both on the plate and in terms of product packaging. However, there are no studies yet to measure and decipher the perception of inclination in architecture.

2 Atkinson also noted that in one of these quarries there is an inscription record which mentions the first use of the ramp “by a clerk of the works named Meri in the year 19 of the reign of Amenemhet III. (about 3300 BCE)” (Atkinson and Bagenal 1926, 48).

3 Originally from “Machinenkunde” by Karl von Langsdorf (1826).

4 “Du pilotis, on monte insensiblement par une rampe, ce qui est une sensation totalement différente de celle donnée par un escalier formé de marches. Un escalier sépare un étage d’un autre: une rampe relie” (Le Corbusier et Pierre Jeanneret and Boesiger 1929, 25).

5 Virilio also referred to the oblique function in relation to urbanism as a “third urban order”. He defines the first order as horizontal, such as villages and land population, the second order as “vertically developed megastructural city, which does not allow communication”, such as Manhattan, New York and Japan; and the third order is “a critique of the two urban orders (Virilio and Limon 2001, 54).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Esen Gökçe Özdamar

Esen Gökçe Özdamar is associate Prof. Dr. at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, and cofounder and Head of Department of Architecture. She received her Master’s degree (MSc) and PhD from Architectural Design programme in Istanbul Technical University in 2003 and 2011. [email protected]; [email protected]