Representation in architecture is an aspect that’s often overlooked, yet in this digital age we always perceive it as the initial portrayal of an architectural project through either photographs or renders. Perhaps due to the over-saturated amount of online images, we have stopped analysing pictures—objects that can conjure a building’s beauty.

Recently, the Multi-sport Pavilion in Francisco de Vitoria University (UFV), Madrid, was completed under the minimal design of Alberto Campo Baeza. Using translucency as a device for natural light, the Spanish architect also maximised the height limit to the building for a lightness that lifts the entire space. The visual effect is captured perfectly through the lens of photographer Javier Callejas. Not only is the space given more depth and spaciousness, but the simple interior also highlights supporting structures holding up the spanning roof. With an interplay of translucent and transparent glass, Baeza carefully manipulates spatial moments to create visual links with the campus. In the photographs, we can clearly put the pictures into context and form our own navigation without floor plans or other 2D drawings. The cooperative method of Callejas’ symmetry in photographs along with Baeza's simple aesthetic have resulted in a harmony of artful photographs dedicated to a breathtaking structure.

In a way, effective representation is one that’s able to clearly communicate a certain project. A photographer then is as important as a researcher since he or she has taken on the role of giving the mass audience access to imagined spatiality of the ever-increasing amount of architectural additions.