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poles, and the gradual processes of approach or distancing
that can be experienced here across wide expanses, this princi-
ple is often deployed as a means of heightening spatial move-
ment in the context of orchestrating religious or political
rituals (> monument).
In town planning, the axial principle makes it possible
to create special kinds of spatial relationships. If the poles are
regarded as destinations, axial relationships within a town (of
the Baroque era, for example) serve the large-scale organiza-
tion of space and of > routes, and provide > orientation in re-
lation to important locations or facilitate approaches towards
them. As regional networks, they extend beyond the town
limits. View axes in landscape architecture – i.e. the English
landscape park – have a similar function. Here, a dramaturgi-
cal network of unexpected, albeit highly calculated, links is
spread out across the seemingly natural, irregular park land-
scape by means of the planned and sudden emergence into
visibility of remote objects.
The concept of the axis has a variety of additional mean-
ings: an axial order based on the tension between poles should
be distinguished from the principle of axial symmetry as the
articulation of spaces and planar or three-dimensional struc-
tural forms via mirror symmetry (> symmetry). The term axis
can also refer to the axial subdivision of buildings and the
constructive organization of rows and grids. As a system of
spatial axes of coordination, finally, the bodily schema above/
below, right/left and front/back constitutes the framework for
> the movement and orientation of the human > body.> composition, force field, heaviness and lightness, order, sen-
sory perception, symmetry
> facade, gallery, ingress and exit, intermediate space, view
into/out ofBalance
Balcony