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vertical stance, which defines our position, stabilizes all of our
spatial perceptions.
Inclined walls and tilted ground planes generate feelings
of insecurity because they call the stability of the upright pos-
ture into question; correspondingly, a building renders the
heaviness with which it rests on the earth palpable through
its tectonic structure in > layerings with an anchoring > base
(> tectonics). With increasing distance from the ground, ar-
chitectural elements seem as a rule lighter, their ‘perceptual
weight’ (Arnheim 1977/2009) is diminished in favour of
other gravitational directions, unless the form expresses
top-heaviness; we perceive it as wrong for thin supports to
carry too much weight, or thick ones too little. Perceptions of
gravitational forces also contribute to the establishment of an
optical equilibrium between the various forms that make up
an architectural structure. But heaviness can be perceived in
individual forms as well. Sloping or bulging walls, for exam-
ple, make a massive form seem especially heavy. Massiveness
becomes palpable through the homogeneity of the materials,
while a ‘monolithic’ structure (the literal sense of the word is
‘fashioned from a single piece of stone’) conceals its contents
as a compact, seemingly hermetic object.
In interiors, we are subject to heaviness directly, to the
extent that it influences our own mental states. If a room’s
boundaries, for example, are formed by an impenetrable,
compact physical mass, and supported by a dense, heavy
> materiality, then we feel ourselves exposed to pressure from
all sides, which generates a sense of constriction. In Roman-
esque churches, especially in the crypt, this can produce the
sensation of a heavy, downward-pressing load. Here, a number
of perceptual factors cooperate in order to create a feeling of
heaviness, including the course cut of the stones, their solidity
and hardness, as well as their horizontal layering. Additional
factors are the darkness of the space and its hard acoustics.
The tectonic resources that convey heaviness through the
expression of heavy loads on their supports can in principle