Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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architectural > capacity. This is a quality that provides space

for use-as-event by avoiding defining structure in relation to

specific purposes, while exploiting incisive form, for example

by means of a specific > type, in order to endow a potential

event with an open-ended yet thoroughly directional signifi-

cance.

Colloquially speaking, an event is a singular moment

that is detached from everyday life by virtue of some excep-

tional feature that calls particular attention to it. This allure

of the special, extraordinary, is what we expect from ‘event

architecture’, the spectacular appearance of which removes us

momentarily from the ostensible uniformity of everyday ar-

chitecture and transports us into another experiential world,

for example a Tuscan village in a northern European shop-

ping centre. This demand for conspicuous effects and the

striking means used to achieve them calls into question the

concept of the event and the architecture that strives to satisfy

it. Continual exposure to excessive stimulation undermines

the stimulus effect and leads towards chaotic noise. This com-

pulsion towards the exorbitant effects attained through the-

atrical spectacle neglects the fact that the stage function of

architecture is also fulfilled when it serves as a background

for incidental behaviour. This calls attention once again to

more subtle approaches that consider the capacity of spatial

situations to accommodate a multiplicity of uses and events

of various types.

Literature: Kwinter 1993; Tschumi 1993

> accessibility and exclusivity

> door and gate, ingress and exit, tectonics, transparency,

wall, window

A particularly effective spatial contrast is produced by an al-

ternation between expansiveness and constriction. In contrast

Exclusivity
Exit

Expansiveness and
constriction