183primarily a question of where it is admitted, directed, filtered,
distributed and concentrated. It either breaks with searing
force through wall openings, flows along or grazes them, or
seeps into joints and cavities. As mediators between > inside
and outside, brightness and darkness, windows determine
through their dimensions and formats whether light divides
a room by individual > apertures into bright window zones
and dark shadow zones, or instead illuminates it uniformly
through glazing.
The character and > gesture of a room is dependent in es-
sential ways upon the positions of light apertures. A window
in the corner of a room, or a slit that is not necessarily visible
at all, illuminates the adjacent lateral wall sections with rak-
ing light, suggesting continuity with the outside. It models the
surface of a shallow relief, thereby endowing the wall with a
lively substance. A ceiling that receives lateral light through
a light gap seems to hover. Windows close to the floor illu-
minate that area in particular, giving it a special quality that
may be read as an invitation to be seated there. Very tall
windows, on the other hand, endow a room with an erect,
ascending gesture, at the same time bringing light into its
depths. Through the intensive zenithal light, a window that
takes the form of a ceiling aperture, and in particular a glazed
roof, assumes an outdoor character, while in the space itself,
the uniform light seems unvaried and monotonous. If this is
not combined with windows that provide views towards the
outside, one feels cut off from the outer world.
In contrast, light that is reflected from a very bright floor
can give the impression that objects and figures float in space.
A glazed volume resembles a lantern, and functions as a light-
catcher when visible outwardly, while appearing as a com-
pact illuminated body when inverted, as in Rudolf Schwarz’s
church of St Anna in Düren. Windows in the form of slits and
perforations shelter the gaze while nonetheless allowing light
and air to enter; this creates connections without really open-
ing the room up.