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broad, undivided public square or in the middle of a confus-
ing distribution of structural elements that lacks any system
of references, one readily begins to feel slightly lost – or per-
haps instead takes pleasure in the experience of > roaming.
Literature: Arnheim (1977/2009); Seyler 2004> courtyard, intermediate space inversion, square and street
> body (architectural), form character, gestaltFor the most part, putatively objective descriptions of forms
also highlight their expressive characters. At times quite un-
intentionally, this expressive character is betrayed by the
descriptive language that is employed. In many cases, forms
are describable in no other way. When we refer to a form
as jagged, for example, and to another as convoluted, such
characterizations say little about angles and curves; instead,
jaggedness or convolutedness is the > expressive content of
the form, its form character.
Where this character is elaborated in design terms so
that it is clearly manifested through form, then rooms, ar-
chitectural elements, and entire buildings emerge from them
and confront viewers with an unmistakable character. Gernot
Böhme refers to such expressive qualities as the ‘ecstasies’ of
things. It is not, however, that their inner, concealed essences
are now allowed to emerge into view; instead, their expres-
sion corresponds to the impression that is evoked through
their characters. In the doctrine of characters found in French
architectural theory of the eighteenth century, the term cara-
ctère referred to the expressive function of a building. Archi-
tectural form, spatial configuration, proportion, and decor
were to have given expression to a building’s purpose.
The more general term form character, on the other
hand, refers to the expressive function of individual construc-
tive or spatial elements, while the term > ‘atmosphere’ refersForecourt
Form
Form character