269fects. The sense of scale also changes when we approach a
building, and depends upon proximity and upon the change
from a flat distant image to a three-dimensional architectural
body. Finally, the visual is converted into the haptic.
Architecture also makes perceptual offerings on large
and small scales. While excessively large planar formations
lack internal structures that would supply sufficient informa-
tion when perceived from minimal distances, an articulation
by means of projecting and receding elements, which have
a receptive function or act as visual targets, break up larger
structures into smaller units and make large-scale objects
seem more accessible by allowing visitors to locate them-
selves in terms of scale. When, on the other hand, homogene-
ous buildings and surfaces display small-scale structures or
patterns without overarching articulations of the total gestalt,
they generate the non-scalar image of a seemingly artificially,
self-sufficient architectural body.
Depending upon > context, the reaction to proximate
and distant objects in different directions may call for atten-
tion to various scales. The urbanistic or landscape scale that
is valid for a specific instance depends on whether we perceive
a public square or street zone, or an entire town or landscape
from a distant view. In a city, for example, > the relation-
ship between the locations of towers that appear as individual
bodies from close by may form an independent scalar system
that allows them to function as points of orientation when
viewed from greater distances.
One speaks of ‘human scale’ in particular when the
dimensions of the human body furnish reference values. As
a system of measurement that works with the multiplication
and subdivision of human dimensions, these reference values
are not easily perceptible – leaving aside issues of general de-
sign consistency. Such reference values are graspable in con-
crete terms in particular as the relationship between bodily
masses at the spatial range or reach involved using doors,
seats, tables, staircases or compartments, and are effective