Clouds and Cataracts: Optical Experiments at Sir John Soane’s Museum

Abstract

Plagued by cataracts, Sir John Soane’s (1753–1837) failing eyesight prompted new design strategies at his house museum at Lincoln’s Inn Fields (1792–1837) that filtered light through colored glass and raised ambient luminescence with myriad mirrors. Revisiting the site as a laboratory for architectural technology, this paper explores design research at Soane’s museum through the lens of optical innovation. An experiment leveraged elements of the 3-D scanning process, such as capture “errors” and panoramic photographs, to create a series of digital models and stereographic photographs for the study of reflection, refraction, and distorted perspective within the context of the Soane house. Moving beyond the use of digital tools solely for documentary record, this project highlights how scanned data sets and by-products can be used to study ephemeral aspects of architecture, including time and perception.