177whereas the use of coarse, rusticated masonry would have a
very different effect.
Such proposals for experience and use on the part of
an architectural structure can have highly divergent degrees
of incisiveness, attractiveness or urgency. If these invitations
guide us towards highly specific movements in an exceedingly
suggestive fashion, we may be dealing with a borderline case
that comes close to a situation of compulsion within which
the user is not invited, but almost forced to behave in a cer-
tain way, even if he or she is unable to understand its purport.> composition, detail, spatial structure, structureA joint establishes a moving connection between two or more
members. Parts of buildings and of rooms or public squares
can be connected by means of joints. While not moving them-
selves, persons establish and perceive the character of a joint
through their movements. Such a connection is experienced
as movable when the formal linkage and spatial connections
found at the site of connection are not constant, but are ini-
tially disturbed or interrupted and then re-established in an
altered fashion by architectural means. The transition is ar-
ticulated in a jointed manner through the addition of a link
(Latin: articulus, small joint, member), which may be a spatial
or corporeal element. A quite simple joint is formed already
by a > door together with the space of the > threshold. For
the most part, a joint involves a change of direction or spatial
division, or is formed as its own jointed space, courtyard, or
open space.
As a consequence, users or passersby are induced to pause
and to engage in a change in form or pattern of > movement.
This change, articulated by means of the joint, receives an
attentiveness that would not be claimed by an unobstructed
pattern or path of movement. If the joint appears at a keyJoining
Joint