Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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purposes, at which point the generation of atmospheres be-

comes an exercise of power.

Literature: Böhme 1995a, 1998, 2006

> centring courtyard, inversion

> postures

> appeal, atmosphere

> axis, body (human), symmetry

When spaces or architectural masses are arrayed on each side

of the straight, central ordering line, which is generally marked

by an initial element and/or by a concluding principal element,

this line is referred to as an axis, and its termini as poles. By

virtue of the strictness of the correspondence between an ini-

tial point and a remote terminus, and of the symmetrical ar-

rangement of the flanking elements, the organizational prin-

ciple of axial layout strives – both at the scale of the building,

as well as in the wider urban context – towards a dominant

ordering effect in relation to which the individual irregulari-

ties introduced by the spaces or buildings arrayed along it

are subordinated. This effect is supported and reinforced

by the shaping of the axis itself, as well as by the preservation

of open spaces or surfaces, and by other types of emphasis

• including, for example, rows of columns, promenades, bod-
  ies of water, or the creation of a homogenous field that is
  traversed by the axis. The poles are stressed by special spatial
  features, objects or buildings. The contrast between affiliation
  and physical distance joins the initial point and its remote
  terminus in a larger spatial tension. Through the open spaces
  along the axis and the link to a goal, a stepwise approach
  becomes a scenically charged progression of movement to-
  wards a destination, growing progressively in importance.
  With its tendency towards monumental effects, the hi-
  erarchical relationship between lateral flanks and dominant

Atrium
Attitude
Attunement
Axiality

Axis