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> furnishingA corridor or ambulatory that opens up on one side towards
a taller space is referred to as a gallery. A passageway or
> arcade, veranda or roofed passageway around a courtyard
may also be referred to as a gallery; a corridor where works
of art are collected and displayed is the source for the term
art gallery.
The highly characteristic form of spatial experience that
is addressed here, however, is offered by a gallery that encom-
passes an upper > level and, by opening up into a taller space,
makes it possible for the visitor to enjoy the extension into
height of this space across multiple levels and from an ex-
posed position. This position at half-height makes the gallery
an ambiguous location. As an audience gallery in a place of
assembly, it offers space for the more remote and subordinate
seats; yet as honorary loge it represents a position of prestige.
To spend time in the constricted space of the loge would as a
rule be unbearable in the absence of an opening towards the
larger main space, as Adolf Loos pointed out. The realization
that it is possible to conserve space by connecting a tall space
with a lower annex was exploited by Loos in his > Raumplan.
If the gallery is instead shaped as a balcony or narrow walk-
way, so that it hovers above the depths, so to speak, then one
is confronted with a chasm. But one enjoys good views, and
is oneself easily visible. If it is deep enough, one can with-
draw into the background and take part in life there indirectly
without being visible from the adjacent tall space.
Most galleries have secondary functions or serve pur-
poses of > access. The main hall often encountered in English
country houses, for example, is a two-storey space with a gal-
lery that provides access to all the other rooms. This structure,
widely disseminated as an entry hall, gathers the entire house
around itself. The spatial conception of the gallery with the
typical coupling of horizontal and vertical spatial connectionsFurniture
Gallery