Fundamental Concepts of Architecture : The Vocabulary of Spatial Situations

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> body (human), form character, ground, postures, symmetry

> form character, movement, structure, tectonics

> ascent, intermediate space, plane, Raumplan, stairs

> axis, movement, route, square and street, urban design

In describing structure, we allow the gaze to glide between

objects, so to speak. It is a question now not of the elements

and forms in and of themselves, not of the rooms, structural

elements or buildings, but of the relationships between them.

The whole is composed of independent parts, between which

recognizable relationships exist. A typical form of relatedness

in architecture is the structural texture. While the > spatial

structure characterizes the assembly of the rooms within a

building or of public squares within a city, the construction is

responsible for the assembly of the component parts. In order

to clarify the assembly of parts in design terms, those places

where they converge receives emphasis as joints, hinges, or

connecting links or joining pieces, accompanied at times by

changes of material. Such measures clarify the structural

assembly of the architecture visually on various levels, and

render it readable in a differentiated way.

On a more abstract level, structure characterizes not

transitions between elements, but their relationship and their

> composition. Here, it is a question not of concrete form,

but of a system of relationships that underlies their assembly,

which is not immediately visible. In this sense, the structure

is an abstraction. A structural approach, then, also means an

awareness of the exchangeability of individual positions and

interlinkages within a structural configuration. Articulated in

structure are characteristics of an architectonic layout that

are only indirectly perceptible in a building’s appearance and

workmanship. One and the same structure may correspond

to diverse concrete design formulations; in this sense, struc-

ture is related to > type. Because it closes itself off to direct

experience behind the concrete appearance of architecture, a

Standing
Statics
Step
Street

Structure