Formal Spatial Design in Architecture

Louis Kahn once said, architecture is the thoughtful making of space. There is an art of composing spaces that creates spatial and aesthetic relationships. This is the art of architecture. Today, so few buildings have a thoughtful composition of space. Space today is created as an afterthought to the functional, structural, and economic requirements of the building. At best, these modern spaces are just a bunch of rectangular boxes arranged in a floor plan. We must look back to the history of architecture to see truly artful compositions of space. Here is an analysis of Bramante's St. Peter's from a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci from his sketchbooks. Here is a volumetric analysis of the Santa Maria del Carceri by Guglielmo del Sangallo. This building was built in 1482 in Florence. Using dynamic symmetry, the square is added to with side squares. This creates the floor plan. Formal spatial design comes to us from the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. During the Renaissance, formal spatial design reached new heights as architects and artists developed new ideas for perspective and geometric design. They got many ideas from studying Egyptian, Greek, and Roman precedent. The word formal here means that the design is started from a three-dimensional geometric form. Cubes, spheres, and cylinders. Often the design is started in two dimensions as a flat geometric figure and extruded up into three dimensions. Formal geometry had special significance apart from just the form itself. Platonic solids since Greek times represented forces of the universe. In the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, there was much importance paid to sacred geometry, especially in church architecture. Often the geometric forms represented a vast wealth of other ideas and principles. Geometry wasn't just abstract forms, but rather a visual language of meaning. Church architecture's visual language was meant to represent the cosmos. The cross-shaped interior spaces held supreme symbolic and mythical significance. During the Renaissance, architects and artists looked back to Roman and Greek architecture to create a language of geometric forms that were rooted in classical history. The Romans in particular had perfected spatial design in buildings and cities, and there was much to learn from them. This is one of the first Renaissance churches designed on a Greek cross plan. It is a concept which merges an aspiration for spatial centrality with the symbolic religious references to the cross. Four equal rectangular extensions are joined to the square central space called a tribune. The centrality of the square is emphasized by the dome above. The pure geometry is based on the circle in a square and controlled by the simple one-to-two proportional relationship. The whole composition resembles a cross with four equal arms. A simple hierarchy of the plan is reflected in the articulation of the volumes as the sequence of spaces decreases in size as the eye moves downward from the highest point of the dome to the base of the building. Geometry. The square or cube as a geometrical object most clearly communicates the notion of enclosure and is also the symbol of stability. The cube among the platonic solids symbolizes earth. Figure ground. Figure ground is the perceptual process of identifying a figure form within a ground form. The figure form becomes dominant while the ground form is in the background. Addition. Addition is one of the simplest ordering techniques for geometric composition. The geometric forms are only closely joined and form an accumulation or group. Their relationship comes from proximity. Often with addition there is an expressed hierarchy of spatial elements. Penetration or overlap. Two or more spaces of different forms overlap and merge into a new shape. The two spaces then overlap to retain their independence, remain recognizable, and together create a new spatial form. When two spaces overlap this creates a space within a space or nesting of space. Nesting. Geometric forms can be superimposed on other forms. One form then appears to be within another space. Wright believed that making a space or room was the primary intent of architecture. He said the reality of the building does not consist in the walls and the roof, but in the space within to be lived in. The space or room was the generator of architectural form. All other ordering ideas were subordinate to this principle. The spatial investigation of the room was the focus of Wright's work because it's essential part in the experience of the inhabitant. The room was a place where man was truly embodied in a world of his own making. Rather than have a pure cube as the form of space, Wright created a dynamic room by fusion or overlapping independent volumes. Wright used the cruciform often in his work. This was two rectangular volumes that interpenetrated each other to form a cube at its center. This produces a tension between a stable center and a dynamic extension of space. The fusion or nesting of several interpenetrating spaces led to a continuity of space, the integration of traditionally separate rooms. This brought an experience of the space that was full of mystery and discovery. This integration of space required the occupant to decipher through personal experience the definition of space. Multiple spatial interpretations could be gained and a more engaging experience resulted. Unlike other visual arts like drawing or painting, where the illusion of space is created through various techniques, in architecture, space is actually built. People can move through the space and experience it directly in a physical way. Space is not just purely visual, but physical and tactile as well. Wright's interpretation of the basic elements of architecture were not taken to oppose or destroy the history of the discipline, as did other modern architects. Rather, it was to continue it in an inventive and liberating way. Like other architects from the history of architecture, Wright was fundamentally concerned with the definition and creation of inhabited space. Finally, we see the plans of the Unity Temple and how all the elements came together into the final composition.