279mospheric character of urban quarters. Landscape sequences
are based for example on the experiential contrast between
views and valleys, open areas and dense forest.
The sequence (Latin: sequor, to follow) is distinguished
from the > row through the variegated character of the suc-
ceeding situations. The individual segment is on the one hand
a self-enclosed unit; on the other, however, it is conditioned by
the non-arbitrary context and by the transition from its pred-
ecessor and to its successor. The basic condition for sequen-
tial experience is a minimum of variety, which singles out the
succeeding situation as a new scene. The interconnectedness
of the sequence is established by > memory, which generates
linear mental images of processes of movement or activity.
Just as the sequence is constituted by memory in the direc-
tion of the past, it stretches at every moment forward towards
the horizon of expectation in relation to future perceptions,
which are in turn conditioned by the experience of the spaces
that have already been traversed.
In contradistinction to the > route, the sequence is heter-
ogeneous, and contains points of discontinuity. In advancing
from one spatial unit to the next, we do not find ourselves in
the continuous situation of the route; instead, we relinquish
one situation in order to seek out the next. Associated with
every step is a sense of loss or of relief, and at the same time,
surprise, or the redeeming of an expectation. In the simplest
case, a first impression leads us to expect a specific quality
in that which approaches. The second step may confirm this
expectation, but may also contradict it in unexpected ways.
In concrete spatial experience, one spatial segment transforms
the next as a function of contrast. In a sequence of contrast-
ing rooms, each individual room is experienced within the se-
quence differently than it would be outside of this perceptual
succession. Adolf Loos exploited this phenomenon drama-
turgically: ‘When we emerge from a low room, a room of
medium height seems tall. Nothing is either large or small,
everything receives its significance through context.’ (Kulka