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By nesting spaces inside one another by means of incorpora-
tion, fundamental operations of containment and the penetra-
tion of containment are multiplied. Literally, to incorporate
means ‘to swallow up’. Transferred to buildings, the concept
means that a building or building component is contained
within the body of another, is ‘incorporated’ by it. With re-
gard to the spaces involved, it is a question of a telescoping
or nesting operation. Incorporation occurs on all scales, from
that of the cell to that of the city as a whole. In principle,
every object that encloses space can be perceived from the
outside as a body, and from the inside, in contrast, as a cavity
or aggregate of cavities. A simple, closed spatial container, on
the other hand, cannot be perceived simultaneously from the
inside as a cavity and from the outside as a body, since we
stand either inside or outside. Things are different, however,
with the ‘house within a house’, where multiple space-enclos-
ing bodies are contained (incorporated) by one another: in
the simplest case of incorporation by one body in another, it
is already possible to adopt a position in the > intermediate
space between these bodies and the surrounding shell. I find
myself inside in relationship to the outer body, and outside in
relationship to the inner body, I perceive the outer one as a
cavity, and the inner one as a body. This ambivalent percep-
tion of > inside and outside, as well of body and space, is es-
sential for incorporation.
At times, we encounter more than one additional body
inside of a spatial shell. A town enclosed by a wall, or a
fenced-in farmstead, for example (both perceived from the
outside as close bodies), confront us in their interior with
a number of buildings alongside one another. These may in
turn contain further bodies that nest inside one another. That
constructions are arranged simultaneously alongside and
within one another is characteristic in particular for urban
structures, and represents a specifically urban form of the
> space-body continuum. The space between architectural
bodies within which we move may be regarded as an inter-Incorporation