301may be disconnected, and related to one another solely
through similarity, contrast, or the complementarity of their
forms. Or they are connected with one another, in which case
the connections are distinguishable according to the positions
and sizes of > openings, changes of direction, bifurcations or
joints, and may be varied by special treatments of assembly
through framing, jambs, spatial buffers, or mediating > poché.
Where spaces interpenetrate, connections are often barely
perceptible, for example, in > flowing spaces, or through the
Baroque fusion of central and elongated rooms.
Finally, the internal articulation of individual rooms con-
stitutes a form of spatial structure, for example in zoning by
means of varying room heights, or > space-containing walls
and the combination of ‘servant and served’ spatial units,
as in the architecture of Louis I. Kahn. The optimal use of
spaces is not dependent upon surface area in absolute terms,
but upon differentiated articulation, the admission of various
interpretations, foci and modes of appropriation. Skilful sub-
division can make rooms appear more spacious.
In the configuration of a spatial structure, the relation-
ship and subordination of spaces, the plan plays a decisive
role. For each storey it prescribes the spatial linkages as a kind
of choreography, it guides the movement of occupants, and
interlinks individual places into a coherent whole. As the em-
bodiment of the compositional intention of the design, the
plan gives stage directions, so to speak, for organizing the buil-
ding’s > use, regulating the division and cohesiveness of uti-
lizations and assigning the various activities suitable spaces.
But in addition to the plan, the spatial structure also en-
compasses the distribution of rooms on different levels. In this
regard, the form of vertical > access is a key figure; the strik-
ing structure of a staircase is capable of rendering a build-
ing’s spatial order comprehensible. With the spatial structure
of Adolf Loos’s > Raumplan, a sophisticated interleaving in
height becomes evident through the options it offers for over-
views and perspectives.