Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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The spatial context of the landscape is interwoven with

the building, i.e. when both belong to the same order, or are

interlocked with one another as complementary figures, for

example when the outer containing walls are configured in

such a way that they frame the exterior space. But as a con-

text, the landscape complements a building primarily by ex-

tending the space in relation to its interior, opening up ex-

panded vistas, while delimiting this broader space.

Every reference to context presupposes a specific inter-

pretation; based on it is either the differentiated confrontation

with the context, or its deliberate neglect, i.e. where the focus of

attention is entirely on a free-standing and sculptural architec-

tural form. The demonstrative non-response to context on the

part of megastructures has been characterized by Rem Kool-

haas with the words: ‘Bigness is no longer part of any urban

tissue. (...) Its subtext is fuck context.’ (Koolhaas/Mau 1995,

502) Yet such an attitude itself represents a communicative

response to context, one that in turn itself generates context.

Literature: Van Eyck 1960/2003; Kemp 2009; Rowe/Koetter

1978; Schumacher 1926

> flowing space, space, space-body continuum

> body (architectural), concavity and convexity, form char-

acter

> angle and corner

> access, courtyard, gallery, route

> comfortableness, dwelling, warmth and cold, residence

An interior courtyard is the space within a building that is

set beneath the open sky. There, one is outdoors, and can

engage in certain activities out in the open without actually

leaving the house. In the form of a kind of spatial > inver-

sion, the courtyard can be conceived as an exterior space

that is everted so that it occupies a building’s interior. In his

Continuous space
Convexity

Corner
Corridor
Cosiness

Courtyard