Selected Bibliography Architecture - Form Space and Order | Page 39

PL ANAR ELEMENTS

Concert Hall, Project, 1942,
Mies van der Rohe

Interior wall planes govern the size and shape of the internal spaces or rooms
within a building. Their visual properties, their relationship to one another, and
the size and distribution of openings within their boundaries determine both
the quality of the spaces they define and the degree to which adjoining spaces
relate to one another.

As a design element, a wall plane can merge with the floor or ceiling plane, or be
articulated as an element isolated from adjacent planes. It can be treated as a
passive or receding backdrop for other elements in the space, or it can assert
itself as a visually active element within a room by virtue of its form, color,
texture, or material.
While walls provide privacy for interior spaces and serve as barriers that limit
our movement, doorways and windows reestablish continuity with neighboring
spaces and allow the passage of light, heat, and sound. As they increase in size,
these openings begin to erode the natural sense of enclosure walls provide.
Views seen through the openings become part of the spatial experience.

Finnish Pavilion, New York World’s Fair, 1939, Alvar Aalto

24 / A R C H I TE C TU R E : F O R M , S PA C E , & O R D E R