Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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ship between space and occupant is not conceptualized as one

between container and contents, but as one between > scene

and actors. Architectural space belongs to that which Karl-

fried von Dürckheim referred to as ‘lived’ space. In this way,

architectural space is essentially perceptible as spatiality, as

a sphere that we generate only through our life processes in

interplay with architecture.

Architectural design mediates between built reality and

situative experience. That which constitutes architectural

space, consequently, is also displayed in the meticulous char-

acter of the > spatial framework. Both the design constitution

and the intellectual apprehension of a spatial > order presup-

poses an intellectual > concept. According to Philippe Boudon

(1991), the object of architecture is a ‘mental space’ whose

transfer into built space is regulated by > scale.

Literature: Dürckheim 2005; Gosztonyi 1976; Kruse 1974;

Meisenheimer 1964

> sound

Architecture is an interplay between mass and cavity, full and

empty, > body/mass and > space. Bodies/masses are percepti-

ble only when they stand out against unformed space. A space

requires figural qualities only when it is formed by the con-

tours of bodies. But space and bodies not only stand in a com-

plementary relationship to one another, they also merge into

one another in a continuous fashion. At least initially, the dis-

tinction between them seems clear: a body is turned outward

as a convex figure, the space, conversely, is concave, inward-

directed (> concavity and convexity). But architectural masses

contain space, and – in conjunction with others – form spaces

outwardly as well. ‘Architecture is the art of designing spaces

through the designing of bodies in dual ways.’ (Schumacher

1926, 28)

Space acoustics

Space-body continuum