The rapid development of computer and information technology has fundamentally changed the relationship between image and architecture as well as their perception. In addition to the conventional types of mostly abstract images used until now in the design and planning phases – sketches, plans, elevations or axonometric drawings - a new type of image is now being used: a digitally created image that appears to be a photograph. In the context of architecture, this type of image has until now exclusively been associated with the image of built architecture. Now, it is increasingly used to let something appear real which has yet to be built. This leads to confusion and challenges the claim to reality of images that appear to be photographs. The series of images with the title „Bildbauten“ deals with the effect and the claim to credibility of images of architecture that appear to be photographs. Frontal views of fictional architectures serve as an example. By means of their exaggerated and orchestrated way of representation, they model themselves on the object- like appearance and the formal language of contemporary architecture in a rather ironic way. All images try to reproduce a reality. They are not a photograph; instead, they were newly designed and constructed from scratch by means of image synthesis and digital image editing.

Philipp Schaerer, born 1972, is Architect and Bildgestalter. He studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and was Architect at Herzog & de Meuron (2000-06). He lives und works in Zurich and Steffisburg/Switzerland.