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may be disassembled into a > layering of levels. Such houses
seem light and ephemeral, an example being the tradition-
al Japanese house, with its individual wall planes, the floor
plane, which is detached from the ground, and its movable
sliding walls. If floor, walls and ceiling as pure (coloured)
planar elements converge at the corners or never meet at all,
as in the buildings by the De Stijl architects, then the house
resembles a demonstration of compositional possibilities,
while tending towards a certain abstractness. Strictly speak-
ing, however, the individual wall slabs and ceiling panels are
not two-dimensional surfaces, but also > bodies. By entering
into relationships with one another through the planes of
their surfaces, for example through > angles or > confronta-
tions, they articulate the room; at the same time, as individual
planar elements that are distributed in space, they maintain
the flow of movement through guiding and leading effects.
A special role is played by the floor plane. In outdoor
spaces, where vertical planes are absent, contrasts in floor
level articulated via steps are a means of dividing the space.
In order to effect spatial extensions into height, and at the
cost of contact with the ground, buildings require a multi-
plication of levels through the stacking of storeys. Intermedi-
ate levels coming between full storey heights allow gradual
transitions, connected lines of sight, and contact between up-
per and lower (> Raumplan). Likewise, staircases, platforms
or individual steps effect a segmentation into smaller en-
trance levels. Inclined planes represent an intermediate form.
Through a barely perceptible gradient, one is induced to move
downward, albeit without really knowing why. A more pro-
nounced declivity, however, makes it difficult to stand, and is
therefore hardly conducive to lingering, or else it invites us to
squat down, i.e. at the Rolex Learning Center by SANAA in
Lausanne.
General meanings are associated with various levels. The
attainment of an upper level, for example, gives one a sense of
leaving obstacles behind (>ascent), a rise in living standards,