Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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by it on several sides without actually belonging to it. The

relationship between spaces that are folded into one another

in this way amounts to a com-pli-cated (French: le pli, fold)

form of > screening. Multiple folds form > space-containing

walls. With vertical spatial transitions, floors or levels can be

folded in such a way that in place of separate horizontal lev-

els, we find flowing transitions between them, as discrete divi-

sions between floors are abandoned in favour of continuous

movement, an example being the design of a library for the

University of Paris at Jussieu by OMA.

Folding is a procedure through which forms respond to

one another flexibly, flow into one another, or in general al-

low room for manoeuvre between them and in relationship

to their contents. In architecture, in ways that are analogous

to the way folds in garments yield to allow space to form

between clothing and body, a building may accommodate

challenging physical or programmatic framing conditions by

displaying the flexibility of folds in the figurative sense, may

‘bend instead of breaking’ (Lynn).

Literature: Lynn 1993

According to Rudolf Arnheim, even when an architectural

space is not seen, it is nonetheless perceived through the ‘Intu-

itive force’, and depends upon it (1977/2009). The dynamics

of such powers of intuition are characterized by Arnheim as

an essential component of every perceptual act that goes be-

yond mere sensory stimulation: ‘The play of forces is the ob-

ject of perception.’ Space is not empty; instead, we perceive the

forces between the forms as influencing the space between

walls and architectural elements, as well as our own stand-

point.

Arnheim describes the impact of such forces in detail:

already the spatial relationships between an object towards

which one moves and one’s own position is imagined as a

linear connection, one that is set off from its surroundings.

Force field