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the > porousness of ancillary rooms as though by caverns.
Through a > space/body continuum, architectural bodies me-
diate between two types of spaces, for they contain interiors
while shaping exterior spaces. For the sake of the amenity
qualities of urban spaces in particular, it is vital that architec-
tural bodies participate in framing spaces, that they are not
simply set off from one another as solitaires. Only above a
certain height do the spatial intervals between buildings play
no significant role, so that towers and high-rises are experi-
enced primarily as three-dimensional bodies.
Given sufficient space, architectural bodies cast > space
shadows, thereby generating zones of influence around them-
selves that are characterized by forces of repulsion and at-
traction. As a result, the spaces between architectural bodies
in urban settings appear either compressed or expanded: nar-
row intervals generate pressure between bodies, while such
space-shaping force loses its effectiveness when the distance
between buildings grows too large. Because we have bodies,
and move with them through space, a confrontation between
our own bodies and architectural bodies is an immediate and
concrete experience (> body). We perceive pressure, density,
resistance and weight in direct haptic contact with buildings,
and tensions and forces as well through the perception of
virtual > force fields. The sensation of passing between thick
walls transforms the transition from one room to the next
into the overcoming of resistance. Plastically articulated and
graduated bodies endow space with > depth. A space that is
occupied and dominated by three-dimensional masses is char-
acterized by a different level of tension from one that is delim-
ited by non-corporeal boundaries, lines, or by plane surfaces
(> field).
From a perspective that is more pictorial than architec-
tural, finally, architectural bodies may be regarded primarily
as sculptures. Here, it is a question of formal qualities such as
the balancing of contradictory orientations and of (dynamic)
equilibrium, of the contrasting composition of large and small