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The space-body continuum can be illustrated in relation
to the dual role of the surface (1), through the reversal of fig-
ure ground relationships (2), and through the transition from
one scale to another (3).- The > surface plays a decisive role, since a (concave)
interior side can become a (convex) exterior side, and vice
versa. The concave inner side of a room, for example, often
displays convex areas, which protrude out into the space,
i.e. projections or columns; concave areas, in turn, may ap-
pear on the exterior of an architectural body, i.e. recesses or
niches, which contain external space. Even when a building,
in conjunction with others, forms the concave contour of the
contained outdoor space of a > courtyard or > square, there
is an interplay of concave and convex forms whose mediating
element is the surface, which is shared by both architectural
mass and spatial figure, and which forms the outer limit of
the of one and the inner side of the other. In a kind of ‘con-
tour rivalry’, both lay claim to the surface of this common
boundary, which can be perceived as continuous, although
the balance between concave and convex may be reverse quite
abruptly, for example when one moves around the ‘body of
the building’, which in turn delimits a public square with its
wall.
The dominant figural quality is assigned either to a body
or to a spatial form. If the body/mass figure dominates, the
Prägnanz of the surrounding spatial gestalt is reduced; one
can tell from the outside of a body/mass when it contains an
incisive, inner spatial gestalt. If the body/mass figure, however,
is reduced to its role as a spatial contour, the body/mass ge-
stalt is deprived of Prägnanz, and the body at most contains
subordinate spatial units in the form of a > poché. One can
readily imagine architectural forms that are ambivalent or
remain indecisive in this respect, which are both body/mass
figures and spatial contours, or neither (chora), for example
the L-shaped forms from which Peter Eisenman (1989) as-
sembled his Guardiola House: ‘It breaks the notion of figure/