155be reversed in order to avoid effects of heaviness. Without
the stabilizing structure of base, walls and roof, for example,
the weight of a house seems to be carried downward into the
ground less evidently. A manifest perceptual dynamic in an
ascending direction, one analogous to the growth of plants,
resists heaviness; in Gothic vaults, loads seem to be deprived
of their weight. In contradistinction to the effects of heavi-
ness of loads and supports, constructions under tensile stress
seem instead light and dynamic. Walls that are suspended or
have no connection with the ground seem weightless or float-
ing, particularly when their material thickness is minimal, and
they offer only minimal resistance upon physical contact.
An emphasis on the horizontal effected by means of
> flowing space causes verticality of gravitational pull and
a building’s anchoring by the earth to retreat into the back-
ground. Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, for exam-
ple, seems light, and appears almost about to float away. The
structure of architectural forms seems even more detached
from gravity when the arrangement is determined by the
loose positioning of volumes in a neutral spatial scaffolding
rather than being connected to the ground. Now, differenti-
ated gravitational fields seem to supplant the downward pres-
sure of gravitational forces.
Literature: Hanimann 1999; Tschanz 1996; Vogt-Göknil
1951> ascent, ceiling, gallery, layering, plane, Raumplan, stairs,
tower
> haptic qualities, incorporation, intermediate space, intima-
tion, joint, threshold
> axis, centring, spatial structure
> memory, monument, place, time
> body (architectural), cell, concavity and convexity, incor-
poration, porosity, space-body continuum, space-containing
wallHeight
Hesitation
Hierarchy
History
Hollow space