Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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and its overcoming all the way to various articulations and
rhythms.
Perceived differently in relation to a traditional under-
standing of ‘empathy’ is the sensation of self-expansion with-
in a spatial form or place, i.e. the physical sensation of arriv-
al. Now, the embodied self feels itself expanding into a form
(> extension), nestling against or clinging to a curvature, soar-
ing or ascending into a vault or cupola, or so to speak seep-
ing into spatial recesses or branching cavities (> porosity).
Literature: Lipps 1912; Wölfflin 1886/1999; Vischer 1927

> body (architectural), expansiveness and constriction, sim-
plicity, sublimity
> closure, screening, territory

Initially, a > perspective that plunges into depth through a
series of rooms in alignment seems to offer a tremendous
synoptic view. But only when we traverse the entire sequence
of rooms do we discover what each contains, its perhaps as-
tonishing features. When a series of rooms is connected one
to the next by openings that lie in alignment, we speak of a
suite of rooms or enfilade; the term is derived from the French
verb enfiler, meaning ‘to string together’. With this architec-
tural configuration, the ‘string’ is the line of sight that passes
through all of the openings, which is at the same time a po-
tential trajectory of movement, and allows us to anticipate
the linear sequence of spaces. Views into the distance show an
echelon of (door) frames.
The perspective of the dividing walls, with their doors,
which are staggered into > depth, convey the scenographic
effect of stage sets pushed towards one another with their
centres left free for > entrances; when the doors are open, an
extreme effect of depth is produced which is extended even
further when windows are set at the ends of the view axis,

Emptiness


Enclosure


Enfilade

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