Deck designs are often complex, layered and faux-naturalistic – but not always. Abstract, dynamic and geometric, this unusual free-form deck design idea involves a single layer of painted illusion but has a profound impact on the observer – whose eye is drawn directly to a single central tree that dominates the artificially enhanced geometric landscape.

From each angle, the apparent geometries change and distortions shift, but the focus always stays the same – a conceptual center of gravity derived from a 3D model mapped onto a 2D outdoor surface by the architect, builder and installation artist Thom Faulders.

So why stray from the beaten path and do something this different from the norm? Well, it is one way to take advantage of a cramped, bland and simple urban space – transforming a two-dimensional flat patio into a dynamic three-dimensional deck.