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suggestive, mysterious, as with all forms of concealment, and
exercises a certain allure. Whereas a curtain, at the same time,
generates scenographic effects.
Strictly speaking, the house or apartment door too is a
filter. It is permeable only for those who belong to the house,
and can be locked and unlocked as desired. Most types of
filters, however, present no sharp spatial boundaries, but
instead render them diffuse, decelerate them, or facilitate a
form of flowing transition (> intermediate space). Filters offer
resistance to the crossing of a > threshold. For the observer
on the other side, they generate effects of surprise when it is
crossed unexpectedly.
Literature: Auer 1989; Beyer/Huber 2000; Stalder 2009> furnishing, interior, residence
> depth, enfilade, perspective
> heaviness and lightness, light
> base, ceiling, colour, flowing space, ground, plane, territory
> ascent, ground, materiality, movementEver since the ‘destruction of the box’ by Frank Lloyd Wright,
the room as spatial container has begun to leak. Precisely
the breaking open of the concave elements of the corners of
a room deprives the enclosure of its stability. In particular
by abandoning space-containing outer walls and instead us-
ing floor, ceiling and wall planes that are interlinking spaces
(Mies van der Rohe, de Stijl), through freestanding wall pan-
els (> plane) or supports in interiors, and finally through vari-
ous types of > transparency, interior spaces are fused with one
another and with the space outside.
The discourse on ‘flowing space’ imputes an apparent
movement to the room as an expressive quality. More pre-
cisely, we actually experience this ‘flow’ through our own
movements; it tends to dissolve the boundaries of our ownFittings
Flight of rooms
Floating
Floor
Flooring
Flowing space