“If one sees two or more figures partly overlapping one another and each of them claims for itself the common overlapped part then one is confronted with a contradiction of spatial dimensions."
“If one sees two or more figures partly overlapping one another and each of them claims for itself the common overlapped part then one is confronted with a contradiction of spatial dimensions.
To resolve this contradiction, one must assume the presence of a new optical quality. The figures are endowed with transparency:
That is they are able to interpenetrate without optical destruction of each other.
Transparency however implies more than an optical characteristic, it implies a broader spatial order.
Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations.” 1
In addition to the idea of transparency, there is also the notion of the fundamental cell, or megaron.
“There are certain archetypal forms in architecture, forms that have recurred throughout the millennia in various cultural contexts…
Through the combination of serial, centroidal and field organizations, we have established…the continuous space of our cities and the discontinuous space of our sanctuaries within them.” 2
1 Gyorgy Kepes, Language of Vision
(Chicago: Paul Theobald and Company 1944, p. 77)
2 William La Riche, Introduction to “ Theory in Practice”
(Architectural Forum, September 1972, p. 34)
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