The history of architecture is also the history of images of architecture, and one changes the other. Now, thanks to computer software which stitches together dozens of photographs taken from a single point at different angles, it is possible to communicate buildings in a new way. You are put in the middle of a space, and – using your computer mouse or dragging your iPad screen – you can look in any direction you choose: up, down, sideways, diagonally, in any direction in full 360 degree turn, in three dimensions. With these images, the rules change. You are immersed, not put at a distance, and the experience of being inside a space becomes more important than viewing a detached object. Interior counts more than exterior and a basic truth about architecture, that it is ultimately about making spaces not things, becomes apparent.
The Brighton Pavilion, the 1815 makeover of an older building by John Nash, is a landmark in the history of kitsch. Thickly and randomly layered with Chinese and Indian motifs, it is tandoori chow mein, sweet-and-sour curry. It is amazing and also cloying, the attempt to tickle the appetite of the jaded and corrupt Prince Regent, for whom it was built. Its kitchen, high-ceilinged to cope with heat and fumes, is a breath of fresh air. This machine for gourmandising is as purposeful as a steamship's engine room, with stone, wood, tile, copper and iron all used to the point. Walls are plain and light comes from above. There is one touch of fantasy, the four painted cast-iron columns shaped like palm trees. The kitchen's function was to inflate aristocratic bellies, the better that Rowlandson's cartoons could satirise them, but it is still a noble space.