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Detailing may follow various strategies; points of con-
vergence may be accented, underplayed, concealed, or in the
case of shadow gap, left in darkness. As a consequence, the
shaping of details does not just serve construction, but also
endows the assembly of parts with meaningful expression. Its
explanatory potential extends from gradual and even seam-
less transitions, to dissociations, and all the way to effects
of conflict and repulsion; it can call attention to the inter-
relationship of parts by interlocking or interpenetrating, or
through their enclosure. The artistic interpretation of the joint
becomes an expression of concern for users as a manifestation
of the proverbial love of detail.
Because the detail determines material contrasts between
interior and exterior, and between floors, walls and ceilings,
spatial structures and forms respectively are interpreted in
various ways. Often, it is only the details that render archi-
tecture readable. The base of the building clarifies its con-
tact with the ground simultaneously as attachment to and
reconciliation with it. A gap between a ceiling and a rising
wall, for example, can contribute to a room’s appearing less
as closed-off container and more a space above which the
ceiling ‘floats’. Window frames set flush with the wall, and
hence invisible inside and without cast shadows, allow win-
dows to disappear so that the room seems to flow without
impediments. The base, capital and shaping of the shaft of a
> column render the bearing of weight in connection with the
ground below and the member above comprehensible in ways
that crude steel supports or unshaped timber beams cannot.
The detail as a special individual form solicits the inten-
sive experience of physical touch (> haptic) and close view-
ing, especially when it is a question of those detailed forms
that are used via direct physical contact, including banisters,
handrails, > windows > and doors, or levers and switches.
Especially important for physical manipulation is a design’s
intelligibility. Such elements, easily understandable as simple
objects, become less so when developed into complicated ap-