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experienced in spaces that not only open on all sides, but also
spread themselves out below, as in mountainous terrain. The
sublime effect of danger, lostness and boundlessness is also
produced by darkness or twilight, and can be imagined as the
type of spatial sensation experienced inside of Étienne-Louis
Boullée’s Cenotaph for Newton.
Conversely, a space is not experienced as confined be-
cause it is small; according to Vogt-Göknil, the constricted
quality of a room is produced by a concentration of solid,
pronouncedly heavy, impenetrable physical masses and
an impression of extreme downward-pressing weight. The
> density of > materiality is also experienced as closure. Under
ubiquitous pressure, the space appears compacted.
Likewise, the degree to which spatial dimensions have
an influence on experiences of constriction or expansiveness
is dependent upon the spatial context. Narrowing a space
at points, or in a short passageway, a minimal cross-section- one that would cause a long corridor to appear decidedly
narrow – is effective merely as the caesura of a spatial se-
quence. The dimension of breadth stands in relationship to
height, so that a breadth that would seem normal in a village
street would appear as a narrow alleyway when found be-
tween tall buildings. The contrast between expansiveness and
constriction is experienced through the rhythmic alternation
between spatial contraction and expansion. The two stand in
a complementary relationship, conditioning and enhancing
one another. Strolling along a columned hall, for example, the
contraction between pairs of columns and the regular expan-
sion into intermediate spaces or side chapels are repeated in
ways that are analogous to the periodic contraction and ex-
pansion of respiration. More lively is the > rhythm found, for
example, in the irregular spatial flow of the sequence of public
squares in a historic town.
The > dramaturgy of movement sequences profits from
contrast: after feeling oppressed by the extreme narrowness
of a passageway, we experience the subsequent widening out