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surfaces be touched, they can also be scanned visually as an
extension of the haptic sense: we see the way something feels
to the touch, and at times, even how it smells or tastes. A
specific sensory experience is offered by the contact of our
feet with the floor; our movements are influenced by charac-
teristics such as vibration behaviour, roughness or smooth-
ness, solidity or elasticity. While certain material properties
are perceived primarily through their surfaces via the sense
of touch, through the absorption and reflection of noise, light
and moisture, and through the conduction of warmth, some
characteristics reside in the depths of the material, and can be
identified only by knocking on them, for example. By being
percussed, the material may reveal its solidity or > porosity, its
> heaviness or lightness, and its resonance.
Depending upon their treatments, > surfaces will have
different material effects. The coarse appearance of a roughly
sawn wooden surface contrasts strongly with the polished sur-
face of a piece of Biedermeier furniture that has been worked
painstakingly with thin layers of shellac. In this context, it
becomes evident that despite clichés about its supposedly
‘warm’ character, wood can project highly divergent traits.
Likewise, the widely prevalent phobia against concrete rests
to some extent upon clichés that disregard the variety of its
handling. A subtly fabricated concrete interior wall by Tadao
Ando makes an intimate, velvety impression possibly reminis-
cent of the lining of a jewellery case, while the roughness of a
board-pressed béton brut outer wall by Le Corbusier evokes
the layering of masonry. The impression made by fine material
is dependent upon suitable treatment, while careless handling
can make even the most precious material seem false. Certain
processing techniques are typical for specific materials, and
may emphasize its special traits. The character of a material,
its porosity, grain or veining, is revealed through its texture
(surface structure, polish, light refraction). Texture can be ex-
ploited as an > ornament for enlivening a surface, and is, as
Adolf Loos pointed out, ‘far superior in delicacy’ to artificially