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Considerations about Space
Human existance is spatial. This research shows in what way man experiences space and desribes the foundation of the origin of architectural space. The house as architectural space belongs next to food and clothes as the basics man needs to exist. These needs express the opportunity to live in harmony with nature. The house desribes the quality of the relationship between man and environment. Aristoteles´ model of space as a limited envelope leads to the idea of abstract space without a center desribed by Euklid. The describtion of space as an endless continuity by Kopernikus finally runs into the three-dimensional cartesian space of René Decartes. The concrete space of experience becomes the screen for a mathematical and geometrical understanding of world. Modern time started with the researches of Einstein. He shifted the idea of space back from matter towards event. For architecture, a geometrical description of space is necessary. But geometry can not describe the quality of the inhabited space. The fixed angle of a perspective diagram can not present the real "being" of things. In contrast to mathematical space, the inhabited space is non-homogenious. The being as a living body is its center. This center structures space in front and behind, above and below, left and right. These directions are the primary qualities of a space related to the human being. By sensual perception man lives space, even more, space depends on it. We are experiencing space mainly through seeing, hearing and motion. They are reflecting our conditions of living. We do not measure distance in meters, but in attainability. It is the atmosphere we are seeing and influencing, which matters, not the abstract "size" of a room. Architectural space is created through separation from natural space by the verticality of the wall. The wall defines indoor and outdoor,experienced through motion. This condition between open and closed is demonstrated by many examples in architectural history. The modern house finally becomes only a mark in the endless floating of space. Giving in the oposite relation between house and environment means to liberate oneself from a safe but limited postion in a bounded space. "Things look at us, when they are not seen as objects", said Heidegger. When space gives up its definition as an object, it becomes part of a living dialog. Events create architectural space. A dance party, for instance, can be such a space. Here all elements of sensual perception of space come together. Light instalation, the rhythm and sound of the music, video performances, the dancers and so on, all these are defining that space. Event not only relates to matter but also to the human body. The importance of event changed the selfunderstanding of our physical being. It is not clear anymore what the body realy is. More and more it is less the place where the being ascertains itself. By the disapearence of the traditional human body the inhabited space can not be grasped anymore. The disapearence of direct sensual perception evokes a compensation by images. The inhabited space is compensated by a representation of itself. |
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