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the space-containing wall provides an access or maintenance
area, for example, or can be used for storage or retreat. Or it
accommodates a lighting scheme, as in many variants of the
Baroque spatial shell. But it also enhances perceptions of the
spatial shell as > screening or spatial buffer (> space of reso-
nance), or enhances a space’s introversion through the clad-
ding of the shell. To the extent that a space-containing wall
contains mass as well as space, it also – as a > poché – facili-
tates formal mediation between neighbouring rooms.
Some wall cavities correspond in position and form to
projections of the human body. Built-in seats, for example,
offer the possibility of sitting within a wall, or alcoves provide
a niche in which to recline. The elevation of the hip-height
sideboard corresponds to the region of the human grasp. An
individual’s > personal space can expand into the cavity of
the spatial shell. When carried to its logical conclusion, every-
thing we require would surround us in the walls of the house.
Wherever we extended our reach, the space-containing walls
would respond the appropriate service. The result would be
a house, all of whose ancillary and functional rooms would
be accommodated within the walls. The space-containing
wall can be conceived, then, as a plastic, yielding mass that
registers the spatial requirements of occupants as a negative
impression through traces of > use. That which is found in
niches, built-ins and plastic extensions is stored in > memory
during continuous life-phases.
Literature: Alexander et al. 1977; Stephan 2009> ceiling, ground, hall, RaumplanEvery building has its own spatial zone of influence, one com-
parable to a cast shadow. By analogy with the shadowed area
formed by a building against the light, this area of influence is
referred to as a space shadow. Just as the essence of shadow isSpace height
Space shadow