Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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of the covering and the invisible core, a concealed form that

can be intuited only from the cladding. The covering need not

necessarily adhere to the body, recapitulating it, but may also

depart from the shape of the body by being loose and inde-

pendent, by means of > folds, for example. As with garments

worn by people, the architectural covering plays more or less

closely around the constructive shape that lies underneath.

But this play also involves the possibility of > intermediate

spaces or empty layers, which may be deployed consciously

as buffers or as spaces of > resonance or clearance. This of-

fers many possibilities for indirect perceptions of > depth as

mediated by surfaces, which may range from total camou-

flage all the way to faithful recapitulation of the underlying

form. Here, it is not primarily a question of veracity versus

inauthentic masquerade, but of the subtle possibilities for the

spatial development of the play of exposure and concealment

as a primordial human theme. The potential for identifying

traits or self-display offered by cladding, however, also allows

one to signal, via architectural coverings, who or what one is.

Literature: Loos 2002a; Semper (1860–1863/2004)

> ceiling, roof

> field, figure of movement, rhythm (spatial), roaming, stairs

Dark rooms address our receptivity to atmosphere in very

special ways. It is not a question, however, of sharp contrasts

between darkness and > light, but instead of generating dif-

ferentiated perceptual possibilities that become possible only

through a marked decrease in background brightness. Only

seldom are architectural spaces deliberately submerged in to-

tal darkness, since their accessibility to visual perception is

then virtually eliminated.

Cupola

Dance

Darkness