Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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or a continuation of the sequence of rooms is suggested by

mirrors. The enfilade reinforces the impression of being able

to take in the entire sequence of rooms all at once. Playing

a decisive role in contradistinction to the spatial > axis is

the explicit articulation into spatial segments. When striding

along, the dramaturgical effect of the > sequence is rendered

effective by the contrast created by changing room heights

and widths and by the varying characters of the rooms

(> rhythm). When we look into depth, the dividing walls ap-

pear through the openings as a sequence of interlocking pic-

tures, each of which provides a view of a characteristic section

of the individual room, if only in the form of a series of vari-

ously designed frames.

If the connecting passageways lie along the window wall,

while the rooms expand primarily along the other side, one

walks with the light to the rear as though past compartments;

this mode of regulation causes the enfilade to seem almost as

though it were especially conceived for viewing palaces. In

organizing an apartment, the enfilade structure makes it pos-

sible to generate a hierarchy of degrees of privacy, for instance

in princely residences, where we find the sequence of ante-

chamber, audience chamber, bedchamber, cabinet and dress-

ing room, and where the articulation into spatial segments

forms a scale of degrees of > accessibility. On the other hand,

each individual room is susceptible – even when the doors are

closed – to being entered from the adjacent ones (> access),

which restricts its privacy and subordinates it to special con-

ditions of communication.

> door and gate, ingress and exit, intermediate space, thresh-

old

In the theatre, an actor makes an entrance when he or she

walks out onto the stage, entering the stage and appears pub-

Entrance

Entrance (theatrical)