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disposition. The built ‘blob’, on the other hand, simulates the
personal spatial ‘bubble’ in a tensionless way. For our move-
ments as well, the forms and articulations of rooms, with their
obstacles and their openings, constitute complementary forms
in relation to which our room for manoeuvre stands out,
and which can be imagined as potential > figures of move-
ment.
The phenomenon of extension is of enormous signifi-
cance for most architectural situations. In many instances,
that which we perceive in the > concavity or introversion of
spaces, or in their > directionality, their gestural character
(> gesture), or > expanse, the way in which we experience
> form character, the > porosity of built forms, and many
other spatial effects, is graspable only through some concep-
tion of the expansion of our personal space and its extension.
Already from a distance, I see an armchair not simply
as an object, but as a vessel-like complementary form that
is ready to receive my body in a seated posture, in which I
already sit in a virtual sense, already feel comfortable or dis-
comfited respectively, as I am likely to feel there. In walking
along a path, my body always anticipates my imminent steps,
and I know well beforehand which foot will step onto a kerb,
I see myself reaching my goal as soon as it appears in front of
me. I experience the broadening and narrowing of spaces, for
example the > rhythm of the intervals between pillars in the
nave of the church, as the broadening and narrowing of my
physical space. My erect posture extends all the way up into
the cupola. The cavity of the exedra captures and focuses my
imaginary expansive impetus. I recreate the arching volumes
of Baroque spaces imaginatively by arching the contours of
my personal space. In the hollow spaces of small niches, by
contrast, I must extend many small antennae.
Literature: Gosztonyi 1976; Merleau-Ponty 1962Fabric > density (spatial), space-body continuum, urban design