Look carefully at this floor. There is a big hole in it isn’t there? No, it is actually perfectly flat and creates an apparent dip in the hallway of a showroom for Casa Ceramica, a tile company from Manchester, UK.
The reason why people are dashing into their showrooms at speed rather than walking has not been explained, we can simply assume that their tiles are so great that people can’t wait to see them. Duncan Cook, the owner of Casa Ceramica, shared a video of himself first ‘navigating’ the floor, followed by a demonstration of it all being in your mind, walking straight over the ‘hole’ and finishing with a neat dab.
While it might give you vertigo on the way into the showroom, the illusion works only in one direction so the apparent shape changes when viewed from the other side.
Scroll down for more pictures and let us know what you think in the comments!
Needless to say, people were impressed by the illusion:
The effect comes from the arrangement of the tiles
Cook’s demonstration supplies a reveal that the photograph alone cannot. He first approaches the apparent dip as though it were an obstacle, then walks across it. The sequence lets the same patch of floor play two roles: a convincing image of depth and an ordinary surface supporting someone’s weight.
A few steps change what the floor appears to do
The Casa Ceramica floor turns a repeated tile pattern into an apparent change in depth. From the intended viewpoint, the lines suggest a dip; watching someone cross the same surface provides a second piece of information that contradicts the first impression. The demonstration is therefore as interesting as the still photograph. It reveals how a convincing image can depend on where a viewer stands, even though the physical floor has not changed.
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