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a second body. Gaston Bachelard (1964/1994) speaks of the
‘motherliness’ of the house.
Peter Sloterdijk (2004) has called attention to the am-
bivalence of such notions, according to which ‘immersion’ be-
comes a ‘sealing off in a space’, and the residence becomes an
‘ignorance machine’. In this case, the dwelling not only offers
the necessary stability for daily life, one that excludes disturb-
ing contingencies, but also becomes a ‘redundancy generator’
that produces triviality in particular. The authority to dispose
of the house as the epitome of property and ownership may
on the other hand shift towards imperiousness.
The character of the dwelling is seen in archetypal rep-
resentations of houses, for example in pictures by children,
where the image of the facade alone lacks expressive power,
and requires the protective > roof as an emblem of dwelling.
In cases where architecture seeks to make an original form
seem interesting, or to convey a singular message, the inti-
macy and familiarity of the house as a home retreats into the
background. If the intention is to convey the experience of
a protective dwelling, the architectural resources employed
must reinforce the emotional content of this experience.
Decisive here is the appropriate relationship between contain-
ment and openness; the dwelling must offer protection and
security while also making it possible to emerge from it into
the world.
Literature: Bachelard 1964; Bollnow 1963; Sloterdijk 2004> ascent, cell, intermediate space, stairs‘Our bodily organization is the form through which we grasp
all physical bodies.’ With this assertion, Heinrich Wölfflin
(1986/1999, 15) claims to explain why architectural objects
and forms seem imbued with an expressiveness that is expe-
rienced in bodily terms. Through empathy, architecture be-Elevator
Empathy