167als, through which the architecture ‘turns towards’ the inte-
rior and its occupants.
When the fineness of the facing of the spatial envelope
offers itself to the gaze and the touch, it corresponds to the
lining of an article of clothing (> covering). In addition, the
interior walls serve as projection surfaces, mirroring forms
of individual > use, registering their traces and rendering
them readable. Through the interior architecture of niches,
built-in seats and alcoves, interior surfaces become > space-
containing walls that are turned inward. Through individual
adaptations, finally, the interior can be tailor-made to fit the
individual almost like a custom-made case. A multiplication
of such inwardness is formed by the separate chambers of se-
cret and hiding places, of chambres separées and burrows for
children. Spatial densification arrives finally at the individual
cell or the bed. A concentration of the interior on a focal
point, whether fireplace or stove (tellingly, the Latin word
focus means fireplace or hearth), or for example by means of
the centring effect of a zone of lamplight, promotes > gather-
ing around the centre.
Through the ambivalence of security and cosiness on
the one hand and confinement and solitude on the other, in-
troversion can become a delicate experience. In the intérieur,
which only mirrors one’s own experience, one remains alone,
trapped in one’s own biography. As a custom-made case, the
interior becomes an impression of unchanging personal trac-
es, as characterized by Walter Benjamin (1933/1999, 542):
‘The etui-man looks for comfort, and the case is its quintes-
sence. The inside of the case is the velvet-lined trace that he
has imprinted on the world.’ To the intérieur as an image of
interiority, Benjamin offers the image of a space composed
of hard, smooth materials, ‘to which nothing adheres,’ and
which makes it possible to begin anew repeatedly.
The sheltering and in-gathering value of > dwelling in
an interior rests on the complementarity of the outside and
the activity of the occupant there. Oftentimes, however, we