DISSERTATION

MOVEMENT IN ARCHITECTURE:
INTERACTIONS WITH SPACE

Literature Study

Submitted by-

AASTHA BAGGA
14025006001
B.ARCH SEMESTER-IX
01: Image Spatiality
IN SEARCH OF DEFINITION:
Since the beginning of civilisation, man has been overwhelmed by the world around him. To
express his interpretation, he made more permanent forms. Thus, the act of making a built form
became an expression of understanding the environment in which builder dwells.

Gaston Bachelard, in the ‘The Poetics of Spaces’, puts forth the following idea “In the vastness
of the horizon, the presence of a solitary tree can establish its space.”

Thus, unmarked vastness gets an identity. Its presence becomes referential to human
orientation. A tree being an object creates a space within itself. The enclosed space is
formalized by the trunk and the foliage.

The spread of the foliage gives boundary – an implied limit to the space created by it. The
boundary does not have physical demarcation. The gap between foliage and the ground is void.
This is the Threshold of Space.

Thus, implied space of the tree creates a domain. One’s position within the implied space gives
identification to oneself. Out of this need for identity, we realize that no sooner do we postulate
a ‘here’ then automatically we must create a ‘there’ for you cannot have one without the other.
This identification is relative to the frame of the comparative system. This is one kind of
identification with one single tree, and yet another set of values that apply to an identification
with say, a grove.
DIALECTICS OF INSIDE AND OUTSIDE
Space has a characteristic of inside and outside. The microcosm of inside always plays against
the macrocosm of the outside. Standing under a tree symbolizing shelter, there is always a
space within and a space without. They form an interwoven web of spaces that invite
exploration and understanding. There is a certain identification with a space within, it is
personal. The outside is distant and remote; It is harsh and indifferent.

There is no clear-cut boundary between the inside and the outside. The extent of the inside and
outside is merely an implied notion.” In a built environment, the cannot be absolutely separated.
It is the movement within the built environment that determines the extent of ‘inside-ness’ and
‘outside-ness’.

Yet the qualitative difference between the inside and outside is stark and definite; it is the
articulation of the transition between them that forms the first drive towards generating
movement. In the case of fully enclosed space, the openings are the buffer between the inside
and the outside. The nature of the opening – the varying degree of openness determines the
quality of space inside, most particularly by the quality of light, which thereby gives a certain
directionality to the space inside.
In the case of semi enclosed space, the separation between the inside and the outside is thin
and subtle. The boundary is transparent and there seems to be an active interpenetration
between the outside and the inside worlds.

Frank Lloyd Wright was among the first architects to attempt a continuous fluid transition in
his buildings. The theoretical idea of flowing space has also been the fundamental concept
behind much of the designs by Le Corbusier. His celebrated works, like the Villa Savoy employ
the colonnaded tradition of the ancient Greeks to extend the outside environments within.

STRUCTURE OF IMAGE
It would be difficult to comprehend an overview of the built form through a few fragmentary
glimpses of the built environment. The cubists of the early twentieth century realized that the
visual nature of our environment cannot be projected in an image seen from a single fixed view.
The visual image is the complex product of a creative process – an evocation and order of the
changing vistas collected by the moving observer. Movement being a function of time-the
fourth dimension, invariably becomes important in spatio-experimental phenomena.

The Cubists’ efforts led to the discovery of the fundamental aspects of artistic vision:
Complementary Unity – of the observer and the observed, of constancy and change.
Complementarity is accepted as the basic in description of all-natural phenomena. The creative
dialogue between the observer and the observed environment forms the basis for movement.

An observer first ventures into a space visually and then physically. Therefore, it is the visual
image that provides the initial clues to the structuring of the space. The experiential
phenomenon is complete and meaningful if the images make coherent and complete idea.
Building up of whole from the parts is a cognitive process, based on a system of references.
(refer appendix: space, perception and experience).
The nature of path affects the temporal process of building an image. Vertical exploration
signifies the notion of layering or image build up of the built form, while horizontal movement
leads to identification of references for orientation.

Visual control must be exercised in order that

the content of the environment unfolds in a
definite order or pattern. Directional forces
may be set by various objects within the field
of vision. Hence, it becomes necessary to
create an order where the observer is visually
and physically guided into the space. The
observer relies on visual clues for his
direction, often following-

• Similar objects placed in series.

• Planes which characterize space/orientation and guide vision.
• Directional qualities achieved through elements of form, light, color and texture.

It soon becomes apparent that similarity, regularity, repetition can set continuity in visual and
consequently physical motion. The phenomenon of continuity recalls the connections between
what was experienced/ perceived to what would be experienced.
ANALYSIS: SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND IMAGE STRUCTURING:
The organization of space and the consequent path of the movement are often indicative of the
prevalent social institutions. Two radically different attitudes of image structuring can be
observed in the course of our history.

Balanced symmetrical images:

Balanced symmetrical attitudes are characteristic of
traditional societies, reinforced by a monarchical
system and strict values. It is symbolic of a
balanced and static social structure.

Established notions of symmetry, axis and order are

employed to command the observer’s attention.
Progress itself is often symbolic and channelled into
paths. Thats what the Buddhist sought to achieve
from their processional route through intricately
carved gateways, finally encircling the domed stupa. Interestingly, this ritual
circumambulatory path finds a curious mirror in Charles Correa’s design of public circulation
channels of bridge and ramps winding down the sabhas of the Vidhan Bhavan at Bhopal.

Simultaneous asymmetrical images:

Simultaneous and overlapping asymmetrical images are found in most post war societies –
where conventions and value systems are challenged.

Modern architecture of the early twentieth century expressed the

ideal of indiscreet, continuous space almost completely freed
from defined centres. In the German Pavilion in Barcelona by
Mies van der Rohe and The Handloom Pavilion in New Delhi by
Charles Correa, space is no longer conceived as something static
or enclosed; they overlap and flow into each other.

Quite similarly, the contemporary work of Frank O. Gehry

refuses to confine itself to conventional notions of space ordering. The Guggenheim Museum
at Bilbao, Spain threads together the various spaces through recurring quality, in terms of
disposition of forms, light, treatment of junctions and so on. And yet, the curious ambiguity of
the overall space, its non-structured fluidity provokes the visitor and invites inspection and
exploration.
SOURCE:

1. Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of space

2. Gprdon Cullen, Townscape
3. Gillo Dorfles, The Role of Motion in Our Visual Habits and Artistic Creation, the
Nature and Art of Motion
4. Gyorgy Keepes, Introduction, The Nature and the Art of Motion
5. Sigfried Gideon, Space, Time and Architecture

02: Movement Spatiality

Architecture and Space
Architecture is an art form. It is not only the art of creating spaces — because anyone can create
enclosure — but it is the design and construction of places, and the foremost expression of a
building is through inhabitation. Architecture cannot float while confined in the Earth’s
atmosphere. It exists in a physical reality that people experience, inhabit, and interact with.
Architecture is what helps us define Place, and in return, it can be influenced by place.

An understanding of place — in all its aspects — is necessary to understand architecture. It is

important to examine how we define space and how we can create and represent it.

Space is the literal boundaries and dimensions we attribute to reality. It is a volume that can be
expressed through mathematical terms. It is the relationship between two or more objects.
Architecture is built in space. It encompasses space, and it defines space but, architecture also
encompasses place. Place is not limited to just space. Architecture and Place are concepts that
also encompass experience and created atmosphere, not just measurements and volumes. What
drives my thesis is this difference between place and space.

Perception
Visitor Circulation