197who has characterized the relationship between these three
‘levels of human existence’. ‘The understanding wants to be
informed about spatial extension, and this occurs in terms
of quantity’; it is not grasped directly, but instead by means
of numbers. (Van der Laan 1983, 16) Spatial extension be-
comes perceptible when the dimensions of the bodily masses
that form a given space are compared with a recognizable
unit of size (module). Just as in music, the basic unit of the
beat makes it possible to comprehend the organization and
rhythmic structure of a composition, the quantifiability of a
basic unit of measure allows us to recognize the harmonious
relationship between > row and grid, or renders clearly evi-
dent the design intention of the rhythm of a spatial arrange-
ment. The > proportions that are developed from a system
of measurement that dominate the space they form offer the
satisfaction of intellectual comprehension. Experienced casu-
ally, however, a perfected order of measure does not provide
the same experiential content as it does when perceived by an
attentive user who is sensitized to dimensional features. For
the moving observer, the difficulty is to perceive dimensions
and proportions with adequate definiteness in quickly chang-
ing spatial situations. To be sure, dimensional consistency is
also experienced incidentally and intuitively. In order to grasp
proportional relationships fully, however, the spatial situation
must be read repeatedly and carefully like a poem as a ‘dense
text’ of multiple interrelationships; this brings about intensifi-
cation, but also requires contemplation.
Literature: Van der Laan 1983The German word for memory, Erinnerung – with its implica-
tions of recollection and internalization – is suggestive in our
context: to absorb a situation as a totality, i.e. in its temporal
unfolding as well, means to integrate the individual impres-
sions that emerge in conjunction and successively. Strictly
speaking, then, active memory begins already with the con-Memory