Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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Even a simple wooden staff stuck into the ground orders the

space around it. A reply to the question: where does architec-

ture begin? might well begin with reference to such a marker,

which generates a centre. As a slender body, a post, stele, col-

umn, or other vertical standing element represents a counter-

part to one’s own upright body. As a one-dimensional demar-

cation, it already indicates the direction that leads towards or

away from it, and can even convey the impression of a sphere

of spatial influence into which one can enter as though into a

room, only to exit from it again. Thus, architectural elements

may appear in isolation (1), in pairs or groups of four (2), in

rows or series (3), or columned hall (peristyle) (4).

1. Stakes, posts and stelae stand free, while pillars, shafts
   and stanchions support, in ‘neutral’ form, the load that rests
   on top of them. Unlike a support, a column is braced with its
   wide end below, at least in the Doric style, and swells towards
   the middle (entasis) before tapering above. Its form displays
   the effort of bearing weight, but is also perceptible as an in-
   dependent striving upwards. The animate dynamism of active
   load bearing is sometimes visualized pictorially in columns
   that assume human form. Today, the column is a dignified
   form that alludes to tradition. In contrast to the rounded col-
   umn, the pillar – with the four sides of a rectangular prism –
   establishes spatial relationships on all sides, and is hence able
   to respond to bodies or the fronts of walls.


2. When two columns stand relatively close to one an-
   other, they define a vertical > plane that seems to be stretched
   out between them like a membrane. Where two columns
   frame a passageway, for example on the water side of the
   Piazzetta in Venice, they function like the pylons of a gateway.
   Configured as a square, columns demarcate the four edges of
   a cubic spatial volume, which we then perceive as a > gestalt,
   i.e. we supply its four sides in our imagination, easily grasping
   it as a spatial totality.


3. A row of columns represents a further development of
   the membrane stretched out between a pair of columns. Since

Column