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columned hall (or hypostyle, a Greek word meaning ‘to rest
on columns’) is the building type that is shaped most strongly
by the column. As a > hall with large dimensions whose very
breadth requires the use of supports, whether columns or pil-
lars, it presents as a public space. It is as though the columns
had gathered themselves there, so that even in an empty hy-
postyle, one senses many other presences. In open halls with
a uniform arrangement of columns, no particular direction is
prescribed, which facilitates casual entry and unconstrained
circulation. But even when it is closed to the outside, the hy-
postyle conveys an impression of imposing generosity.
By virtue of the affinity between the tree trunks and col-
umns, a grove with regularly spaced trees – for example, the
orange grove at the Mezquita in Córdoba – can be regarded
as a transformation or anticipation of the hypostyle, whose
columns, in turn, evoke the impression of fossilized trees.The German word Behaglichkeit – the rough equivalent of
comfortableness, which also expresses a sense of physical
contentedness – is derived from the word Hag (fenced enclo-
sure), which referred originally to a section of the wilderness
closed off for human use. The word comfortableness has simi-
lar implications of cosiness and physical security enjoyed in
familiar surroundings.
The word comfortableness is primarily evocative of the
immediate environment of a residence that has been ar-
ranged by an occupant. Basically, the preconditions under
which comfortableness may be produced effectively include
a multiplicity of individual factors and their interactions. Any
restriction to putatively objective physical values, however,
rests upon a questionable conception of comfortableness.
Building physics investigates and codifies comfort via physi-
cally measurable minimum conditions, such as light inten-
sity, atmospheric humidity, temperature, air exchange, and
noise intensity. The > atmosphere, however, that is present inComfortableness