Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays Robin EvansContents 5. Parades of the Ordinary Motion Mostafa! 11 Towards Anarchitecture 85. ‘The Righs of Retreat andthe Rites of Excsion: [Notes Twards the Definition of Wall 59, Figures, Doors and Passages 98, Rookeries and Model Dwelings: Engl Housing Reform al the Moralites of Private Space 119. Not to be Used for Wrapping Purposes: [A Review of the Exhibition of Peter Eisenman’ Fin Ow T Hows 158 Trandations fom Drawing to Building 195 "The Developed Surface: [An Engniy into the Bre Life of an Bighteenth-Century Drawing Technique 283 Mics van der Rob's Pradical Symmetries 278 Robin Evans: Wetings Rein Middaon 288 Bibliography Ricard Dified 208. AcknowledgementsParadoxes of the Ordinary Meion Mossi in ask me, which of the philophe” nits or itigneraie? For example thir Lak of rial see, trated of becoming, thir ‘lypici. They think that hey sw thi vespec fo asa le hy debit it~ thon hy ti int arn Tredrch Nietsche, The Tuli of he le ‘Snathing i ency— hat is hoot begin, Bat ath some ne one ms reach for the rene “somthing” which ie lady loa hand Th iden Sao isin danand ere mast esting totic ae al Ernst Bloc, ‘A Philosophical View of the Detective Novel” Robin Evans's writings rarely arm the status quo. As soon as he set ou 1o study a topic, he discovered its inherent inconsistencies, Heepointed to gape whee others saw none ~gups between draing and bailding plan and occupancy, projection and imagination and he found order in places where oshers thought it dd not exis. ‘Robin Evans was Fascinated by isis ‘Ordinary things contain the deepest mysteries’ ao begins the essay “Figures, Doors and Passage’ Ti an night tates at the core of Robin Evans’ thinking, Seepical of the most obvious, seemingly ransparent view of things, he searches for what is be- neath the surface, Slowly, methodically, mysteries” are unraveled in is teats. Tn ‘Figures, Doors and Passages’ Evans point of departure i the alleged ‘ationaity” of comtemporary domestic architecture of He then explores the lack of fc between the stated intent housing heer privacy, comfort and independence) and its actual impact onthe occupants Through thi reworking she university and timelessness of the justifications for domestic architecture are‘questioned and the nevtralty of its ordinariness is denied. Ac conding o Evans, the neutrality of dhe ordinary i nothing bat 3 delusion, and delusion with consequences to, asi hides the power thatthe customary arrangement of domestic space exerts ‘ver our lives, and atthe same time conceals the Eat that this organization hasan origin anda purpose. vans points out thatthe deste to achieve a set of prescribed terms or conditions fr domestic space sa elatvely recent pheno= ‘enon ~ and, more important that ube meaning of these terms thas not aways been the same, The sitatednes of concept sich as comfort, for exarspe, depends on cultura, temporal and tech nical conditions, and 30 vaties enormously from place to pace “The secret traces of architectures response to this ever-changing Tis of variables are embeded in is pane. But whats generally not ‘explcly revealed ithe way thae Sure ll occupy the building as 8 st of relations, Evans responds wo this dificuly by justapesing house plans and paintings of figures fom a particular time and place in order to elucidate what he calls the ‘coupling between everyday condet and architectural organization. A simple detail ~ the nurmber of doors leading imo a room forms the focus of study and becomes the basis fr a revision ofthe social and eutural history of domestic architecture. Why did ov if ithad many doors leading to other rooms, hinetenth-century England only terminal room with a single ‘dor to the outs was thought to produce such convenience? The unfolding of this question involve issues of eleural sociability the history of the corridor, the pintings of Raphael, bodies and builings, as well as a study of Alexander Klein's ‘Functional Hose for Frictions Living’. What seem poignantly character- inti however, are the authors powers of observation Evan's wings share a certain Kinship with the detective novel, He isalways looking forces, noticing unscen dings, searching for fase alibi, Here the mide of the eighteenth century, Ernst ‘Blodh el us, dhe concept of tal by evidence did not exist. ye were the only means of sustaining convictions and since there were rarely enough eye witneses, confessions were obtained through torture. The advent of ral by evidence gave vse in tur tothe depiction of the detective asthe pero gathering te evidence, But, a Blah pois out, one must witness and confess bbe mind that evidence can also midead, especially when it “appears tof together smoothly and without gape! [No armchairdetecive, Evans often vit the scene to gather his essay on the Barcelona Pavilion he speaks of the Jmportant role that photographs and writings have played in establishing the building's hiswrical status. He then vist the reconsructed pavilion only to make remarkable dicoveies. Similars, when projection and imagination become the ste of his work, his theoretical speculsions make it necesary for hm to undertake his own complex drawings, 10 be implicated in the projet by way of its reenactment, in order to contiem his bypo- ‘hess, His textual references, while crucial, invariably play supplementary role to thee onsite observations and actions References substantiate the argument, prove the point, athe than instigate the eas "Thave tied to avoid weating buildings as if they were paintings ‘orig’ he says A dferent kindof lnk hasbeen sought Plas hhave been scrutinized for characteristic that could. provide the preconditions forthe way people oesupy spac, on the assumption that buildings accommodate what pictures iutate and what ‘word describe in the eld of ran relations.” Evans deals with the reciprocities between architecture and the various spatial conditions praduced tough ws. His mistrust of the oficial view leads him to pursue a more icumstantial route in which the at abilities of the everyday are welcomed. Architectre’s actions andl ‘events are alected by and open othe uncertainties of the physicalword. But, equally architecture bee in the formation of new socal relations in that worl In this regard there is larly a link been the work of Robin vans and that of Michel Foucault, expecially in relation to theie respective studies on the history of prisons. For both authors the architecture of incareration not ony invented but als produced slit Hence Bemtam’s panopticon can noche a neutral entangle, complicit, container; rater i¢ transforms, though it performative actions, ‘he nv ho inhabit In Rookeries and Model Dwellings, part of a large, incomplete project on the history of domestic architecture, Evans continues his cater investigations of the disciplinary nature of architecture ‘The ninetenth-century origins of the modern housing estate are wed to demonstrate the attempt to link moral and physical Jmprowement, Evan shows how the ‘decent home” of today has 3 relation to the Victorian rookery den and the ‘were found there. For reformers of the period, who saw vice as a physical ailment, the twin evils of immorality and Ut Nea vlecencies that sealed in the building of what Evans cll oral emi in a tl generate landscape’. The demarcated boundaries, became a new form of ‘privatized’ public space. The refarmatory characteristics of the panopicon were ‘thus extended to the public sphere and provided with a new moral [Evans's concerns withthe spatilities of everyday life share cer- tain sympathies with thoue of other French writers, notably Hens nang estate, with its clearly Lefebure and Michel de Certea, both of whom have done much sworkon the raiality ofthe everyday: Lefebere's rethinking ofthe ‘concept of “quotidian traces the effects of our cwn experience of| society while challenging ier naturalness. De Certeau speaks of spacein terms of the ‘elect produced by the operations it situate i, temporalize it, and make it function in a pobvalent ‘unity of confitual programs or contractual proximities’ Likewise, it isthe polyvalent realites of architecture as practice that Evans bring to our attention, ‘An aspect of practice that engages Evans's ater writings the in \estgaion of the roe of drawing His esay on “Translations fom Drawing t Building’ demonstrates a sit towards the study of| drawing asa device for thinking and imagining Again, what seems to fsacinate Evans ithe iference between the architect's and the artists uses of drawing. He observes thatthe artists intervention ‘on paper (r other material results inthe final work the painting for sculpture isl, whereas the architect's drasing ta device for teaslaton toward the act of bldg “Draven intrusive role in the development of architectural form, as he termed it, became the focus of the research which led to the publication of The Po tie Cat The writings of Robin Evans rely heavily on his eaining as an architect. In turn, they demonstrate a certain degree of instrumen: tality Asa historian, Evans poins o alternative postions and sug gests new ways of conducting the practice of architecture based on the labour of others before us, ar from wishing to dehistoricize architecture's practices, he actualzes them, brings them into the present, Thus the paradoxical atualiatons unraveled and de- bated by the essays in this volume open the way for alternative onstructions of everyday realty ~a reality an architecture, which bears the traces, albeit invisible, ofits own provisional circum fit Hck Pipi Vi ote Dees Nae, p27 Tir pa mn fan Lao Care, Ma 185,INTERFERENCE 1970 ‘Towards Anarchitecture* ‘Esymology: am non (gk), archi master (gh), tegere building (gk) an’architecture non-architecure w anarch'tecture the"Much of what we ne dings a qustion of charging th sof hing Ludvig Witgenstcin Tere is a need to clarify the rela ture’ and human freedom. The design, emergence or occurrence ‘of novel kinds of apparatus on both micocoemie and macro ‘cosmic scales has brought up certain questions centring aro the socio-political implications of “things. Inthe past these questions seemed of relatively minor importance, but now their implications are broadly dieused, However, the consequences ofthe existence (of such things as the salway network, telephone system and ship between “archive ome elecricey apply are comples and recalcitrant to ana, They ae most invulnerable when the tack onal — ech ju a cate way of ying tat no use playing around veh words tke function, “need” and ‘movement pattern sina tino simple matter of “resto, ffeedom’ or choc The problems tat are cannot be eohed by concept nating ik 'A ths pont tis jos as welt lary what thi atic mt stent isnt aboat the Sorm-gnbolin of feed in aki tecture — the metaphors fret that seen tomate p the stk Ineade of mos theories and Rorians when dey chance (ohit upon the uber The acon relat fo moder ace] imobed Fedo ofthe india ered by bred of pc, ek the bling el estore eeeatea eee att eseet at sechicctrlcodioe ett tga This statement is doubuess trve but it seems (© me to be of secondary sigiicance inthe Feo the direc fle of "hing pon ‘human actions, wheber this effect is beneficial or detriment, freeing or constraining artefact systems PHYSICAL SYSTEMS WITH AESPECT 10 POSSIBLE HUMAN ACTIONS VOLITION RESISTANCE AND INERTIA On the contol of ction dag psa tons. Changing the state of the sev = ine, Teil pao. The idea that we, as designers, are commited to proving maxi 1 ‘choice’ or maximum ‘reedom’ seems toe arousing us to unprecedented heights of metaphysical speculation. The nature of| ‘this phenomenal outburst such that ex abwurd to imagine one could be dispasionate or uncom isa way of changing the word and nota way of describing given ited shout it. This is because it sate of the world? ‘Any statement such asthe foregoing evokes the response of "Yes, taut is arly our task to dictate the pattern in which the word is sping to change’ This a reasonable sort of reaction (hough maybe a lide simplisc, since every human act efetively aimed at this metamorphic end = if ie aimed at anything at all). The twouble is that any change inthe systems of organization which aifect man ~ tha is, any change in the social mores or physialcard systems upon which soriey relies — can be construed as ‘nuroene? But ther ean important distinction between the spes of interference that operate in this way. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE INTERFERENCE Paste infeoe i sy change inthe ambient universe which al- Jows an expansion of posible actions but does not produce any restriction of existing posible atone (Fg 3A) Rigi nee ste converse of postive iterference. I in voles changes that reset posible actions without producing any extra or alternative actions that were not viable before (Fig, Stic interece. most all “interferences are, in realty sytheses of positive and negative interference, They thus imvolve restrictions to exiting posible actions while adding novel ponible actions of diferent character This x particularly the case with large-scale changes in cur surroundings, sich a those asociated with planning and architecture Postve interference can be most vividly seen in large-scale systems sch a the telephone network, Telephones do na, in any physical sense, prevent any of the actions that would have happened before they came on the scene.‘The presence of a phone does not make any difference to the physical conduct of life, The thing i hati is available if you want to use it ti « postive interference ~ allowing certain novel actions (instant come «ation of various kindy) without dsllowing any others The walls of prison, onthe other hand, are there forthe sole purpose of frustrating ceain kinds of action. They are notin themselves meant to provide any posive imterlerence ~ any expansion of porsble action - whatsoever Thee function iw narrow down the scape of action of given set of persons during given lengths of time. They are pute negative interference Probably the simples example of a synthetic system is anordinary roa i « main road i Ind along someone's Frontage it ‘may well mean that he can eut his home/ work wave hall The road is giving him, inthis way, more dine re of specie constants, and is therefore postive interference, But it may also mean that is wife has to ferry the kids to an from school because ofthe heavy talc, and thisis negative interference. Road ar ke the River Nile; they allow long stance unification, but on a micro cosmie eae they are more likely to bifureate. time by CRITERIA OF LIBERATION AND CONTROL. This all very well but there is some doubt as to what we are actually interfering with when we alk about positive and negative imerference. ‘The answer to be more than just passing obser vation, should have some degree of quantfabiity: Interference cannot then be conceived of as theflflment or blocking of wishes ‘or dreams or intentions or deste. To give ita more substantial aspects necessary to consider it in relation to actions” But having said this, we come upon further difculies. Inthe first place itis only reasonable toimagin that actions are not all of the same value or weight Some, such asthe act of writing, mole whole realm of non-active wales of intent, hich can be of the most vital importance or of Ho sgt nee at all, Others, sch a8 painting one’ front door crise, may have litle immediate sigi- ficance but may nevertheless be considewed of importance. Sil ‘others are tall intents and purposes purely randoms ‘Whatever one says about action, it is impossible o extricate ‘onesel from the cerebral, and therefore not-quanifiable, judge ‘ments of what the actin for about, o teas how important i is tothe partis involved. We soon Find ourselves steeped in the dlespondent slough of metaphysical quieksand. The points that hhuman action toward goal cannot in any serious way be wsed as 4 design criterion, But its nevertheless usefl, because tis aways the vehicle of the intentions and purposes that undesi every existence. Action and tention ar inextricably inked, aud tothe many divergent intentions and goa surrounding actions, there is dhe fit that new intestons andl goals arse fom novel conditions. The inzoduction of a new physial system (eg, 8 network of domestic computer terminal or weal system eg, the Gode of Hammurabi) i quite likely 40 produce unforeseeable ‘human actions, Is posible to lst innumerable examples of novel actions that depen onthe artefacts and suppor-sytems avaiable atthe time. In the fourth millenium BC dhe novel actions woud hhave been those asocated with the neoithic/urban revolution — buying, producing, sling and the many sophisticated sub- divisions of which we have lst race, Tn the nineteenth century they may have been telegraphing, posting suring on the water fiom the corporation main, and many other verb-ype wordsts (Gome of these being rather ino). This would indicate tha there are always going o be ations to the complete se of “posible etions” a time goes on, It dhs arises that freedom of action never ade fad established condition ‘bu always nascent possibility. shall explain this ypc phrase a linle more clearly The iaodution of new physical system gives rive to novel action types, as deere above: these may be of very general, oF avery particular nature ~ depending on the sale and extent of the sytem. Consider the automobile and the novel action of being driven in or deving i. The ability vo make we of| (hie new activin is not a mere futon of i eing invented, or of| neve word being added othe OED, tia function of the number of persons to whom it becomes areal posi "This i a ten, dependent on the aaiabily of large-scale means of production and on a supporting tecture of roads... a matter of time. As ‘more and more posible human ations ars, thrown up out of the matric of research and development and good old-fashioned innoation, the bounds of freedom become wide and wider: EachoF the novel actions wll inevitably have tobe inched inthe cover concept of "being fee wo ‘COMPRESSION AND DONATION Taw ase of he proviso of posible cin by psi sstos "There are two ways in which physical aytems (dings, artefact gadgetry) provide ‘posible ations or create postive interference ‘whic the same thing (Fig 4). Fst, they can compres events in time, Such systema reduce the ime spent on certain activites and functions so that theres space eft for novel o preferable actvites to ake place. Examples of primarily compressive gadgetry inchde rad and rail systems, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, ail ‘order, supermars, most machine-tool, and typewriter. If the world were filed only with time-compresing gadgetry ‘we would bore oursches to collective death, But there are also donaive physical systems (thing, artefact) which do not replace (oF minimize ready-made tasks, but are original human time: comers ia their own right It offen the ease that things conceived of as tn creations ofthis latter kind. The camera, for example, was org compressors turn ott tobe orignal donatve inaly a subsinute forthe time-consuming representation of events and persons by painting, but is speed of operation ane simul tanity of image meant that other uses, quite unfrescen, and imposible forthe arist, were soon bing explaited, Primal dosative systems inclde: television, printed books, watches and lod, coin money, domestic eletriity supply second and third utr and builings: The two types of system compresive and donative ~ complement each other: nether would make a great del of sense without the other. What we have, thus fx, i¢ a method of articulating anthropo- centri systems ~ systems eter imposed directly on man, or phys ically wed by man in the form of gadget, et. — in terms of | the contol or freedom of human action that these systems induce (Fig 6, One could elaborate on this, in the sense that overall free- dom can result from specific conto nd an over lack of fee- ddom fom cetan ‘unite’ freedoms; but ther isn space enough igen such dialetcal sophistication, especialy a it mikes no dllfrence 10 the fundamental distinctions at sich. It wll be ‘more Fatfil'o pursue the conncetion between action and thingy” “Things oe itr possible or imps? John Raskin Ruskin's Ena Lecaes is meant to show the prevailing standpoint to which we are all occasionally re of| fur language demands i. Yet the implications of this polar tinction are greatly at variance with practically any real situation If you think about i, is ificuk to imagine any circumstance in ‘which conctvable acon is absolutly imposible oatain. And, if this is the case, it conversely becomes sight absurd to talk of The above quotation fro subject —if foe no other reason than simply because theRESOLVE Sousonant a GOAL ACHIEVING: THE STANDARD AppROACH TOMAR ATE voumon METAR YacTION Yeon yanks DEVIANT ACTION RESISTANCE oF THE AMBIENT UNIVERSE TO PURPOSIVE ACTION. negative interference postive interference ‘hings being ‘posible’ asf some actions were absolutely posible and others not. When we tlk of posbility and impossibility in relation to human action we are almost bound tobe using a con- ‘venience for expressing the eae oF diculy of achievement. There nother word, something more akin to a dipole situation than to a spectrum in operon eas said ear that physical systems cam have two kinde of efTet on human action: positive or negative. But, a8 one loos into it, itbecomes clear that his is nota sufficient desertion. drstead Wwe ned an indication of how much the sytem frustrates ores Ben a specie and dierete intention such as vsing an acquan- tance entails. whole range of varying fictrs of purely physical nature. Contact with the acquaintance is clearly ot « matter of possibly or impossibility, buts eidher relatively easy o relatively dlicul to achieve, depending on a nexus of circumstances: Hoe car available? .. What are the road ke, ce. All these circumstances interact to bring the mater far away ie?conclusion ~ whether the vist should be effected, or ot. ‘The dlcision i at any given tn rot the ease with the deciding fctors. This is why’ the standard pproach to human acivng ‘goal-achiering’ (Fig 5), is rather a binary yes/no, but such is easly distorted in its emphasis on the end-product of an already formulated resolve. It neglects the quintessential matter of the ‘arabes affecting the action itself, which take place in the pyical ord and are thus affected by the physical world RESISTANCE “Somuting thei that dno eal? Robert Frost Lifes made up of an essentially rsa series of quotidian events ‘or atleast this is how ic appears when interpreted in terms of ind vidual action geting deemed, making coffee, eting, copulating, ‘washing up, et. But the agglutination ofthese minutiae ean be of | the greatest importance, since it i by the arrangement and §staposition of such things tha time i file or made inorder to ‘maximize the potential of anyone's condon ‘Tormake ths intligile in terms of ‘environmen esi iis recesary to recast our notions of action na manner that icon rnd just 0 latch on to the rently springs to mind, "This hae Sonant with what actally occur, Ihandy-tag vocabulary that been atempted by regarding volition and goal as unresolved situ ations that are resolvable only in terms of the course of action recestary (0 satiny the subject and achieve the goal. lv other words, the accomplishment ~or flue ~ of the desir, intention or resolve iheld to be dependent onthe means at one's dxposil. The physical world can then be considered to offer a kind of variable resistance to the accomplishment of human desires. This can be indicated by the symbol use for a resistance in an eletieal eet since ‘resistance of the ambient univers’ similar in operation to an electrical resinance — whats being rested, however ot the internal RESISTANCE EVENT PROBABILITY ——— RESISTANCE of the ambient Shlverse flow of electrons trough a conductor, but purposive human ation fn the word a large, Three modal situations involving resistance can be illsrated (Fig 1. That in which the resistance of the ambient anivere is ke «enough to be overcome by the volition in question, 2, That in which the volition ito weak or the resistance too great for the action w be attempted, of if atemped, 10 be cated throug, ‘3. That in which surrogate goal is subsite for an original goal msociated with too great arsine, Obviounly the surrogate goal soul not offer as great resistance value a the original goal Z, unless a misjugement had been made “The frst point wo be made fom this thai bingy vedo ings Tn this formulation it is not some abstract politcal concept that deter tines the plausibility and expediency of any intended course of 20, action, be it drying hair or landing on the moon, but rather the efnel eae, nto rather clser relation withSie capacity of things inthe ambient universe to encourage or resist certs human esponses ‘he day after I had thought of the idea of “ambient resistance an incident cocurred witch seemed to very is woe in everday activity andi relation to physical organization. was in bed, the time being about 8.30 am, and was musing on the Benes of| setting up, since I had quite alot todo the day. Uslly I would rot have been very receptive to my own admonitions and would have remained in bed for a god hour, but on this occasion I got up. Almost as soon as T al accomplished this almost unpre cedented act, it occurred to me that there was significant difference inthe arrangement of the bedelohes that morning; it had een a relatively ara night and the sheets and evers were ‘ot anchored into the mattress, which mean ould slide laterally ‘out of bed with only the alightet physical ffir. When the bed- clothes are arranged normally however, [have to pall myself up ‘out of bed ~ an exereise not made any easier by the fact that it has to be performed with only about 1 ine of headroom between the surfce of the bed and the atic ool This I ehought to be a sigufcant piece of corroborative evidence. Ie was nothing other than the reduction of the ‘esitance of the ambien universe to ny intended action that led to the action taking place. ‘Maybe its not much society that is perenne a the things that asocety we, A eharacteriaic of the notion of resiance is that it undereus the idea of need-atisfacton, It evident from the foe the simple act of providing ase of utiliable articles will ot ac- tually satya general et of need if we say that we havestied a client's needs by installing a computer terminal in his bedroom, then we can only be talking about his rather special need to have & computer terminal in his bedroom. But the esential needs which architects and planners ad industial developers like 19 think they are satisfying are of a altogether more ephemeralsubstance, Needs ate never sated by “good” environments although they are met with greater Fit in such sureoundig. The computer terminal therefore doe sn rete a whole series of ‘reste to desired ations, which then become more likely to occur as a result of this reduction. "This of some importance. I would go sofa as to say that tio ‘he greatest importance. However, in many situations itis not ony the relationships between things that determine whether or not an actin is caved ml habit abo intervene. Now these “internal” presses, however ot 10 much satay a need fut; the Les tangible factors of custom, appmbaton, consent imeresing are not particularly germane to our theme Sulice i .0 say here tha dey can be regarded as ating in a way very sar to physical restances, so that itis pesible to construct an ado Aiagram (Fig 9) in which these factors are inluded, and then wo plot the postions of some ordnary'kinds of event involving human action The postions would indicate the probability of occurrence of a errtain eventtype under certain cantons which could be resolved into internal’ and ‘external’ resistances, For instance, ‘good deal of external resistance to making a phone call would be les ifthe phone were at one’s ellow and not 700 yards down the road. And a good del of internal esiance would be bat if it were 1 a persona end rather than tothe National Asiance Board In both cases the probability of occurence of the event would inreate asthe resistance was reduced Ths its thatthe physical systems within and with which we ‘exist are capable of affording greater or les contol of our actions eater oF ls voional scope: ‘THE WIDER PATTERN Artefacts, ool and support-ystems ate man-made and one would ‘therfore expect that they would be subject wo gubernatorial guelation by man ~ but they do not appear inthis lghe historical Theie aecidentl and contingent atributes are far more sharply elineated than their shve-servane qualities, ‘There are myriad examples of this from the Industrial Revoltion. One such example is illsrated in ‘some extrinsic effects of the Siemens Bessemer proces in America fram 1860 to 1890” (Fig, 7). The Jnrctcton ofthis new steeLmaking proces gave rie to further new processes, described by anthropologiss as manifestations of | “cultural relativity’. Anthopologizs have a rather singular anu to such phenomena [change in any one prt fcr wil be accompanied by changes in tte pans Only by elating ny plned deta of change othe cata valuetof thecal it posible o provide or de repecusions which il veurin eer apc of I Thi what ment by ul ea “This sa nice atatement of the conventional wivdont on the roe of technology and innovation on societal steuct ‘enough sor of approach when coafined tthe context for which it was orginally intended: small rbal groups with @ homogeneous set of ‘central values’ whose very existence is chreatened by inter vention or interference fom paternally concerned outsiders, But + 4 reasonable With large-scale, openly pluraiic and multivalent societies the situation iliferent In the it place, the idea of eultaral relativity is based on the overrationalized supposition that socal strucere i 2 good thing to stabilize ~ but this eve oaly on very rare oe= ‘ations, not all he time. Secondly the iden of imposing central values on such a large-scale human assortment tastes rather of the deforming/ reforming zal of moralized bureaucracy. The human renovation schemes that arise in this way are inadmisble because they ae effected by proxy a tance, without the involvement ‘of those whove lives are being changed. Elective individual and social morphology does not occur in this way, but by subtle roceses of infiltration and goal-worentation Deana Duthin became ny int ad onl screen dl. Ladared her andy ‘aortic yea great de Tate be a ch keh a oni [nd myelin some anoying agra sos ound ysl? wondering what Deana would do, and mode my owe resco acordngy "This ight be txmed a valid? morphology of ation since the re ceiver i acting dough her cwn volton, Sima val responses ‘could conceivably be evoked by architecture. The sciaartphilo- sophies of Ldoue, Pugin and Ruskin were dominated by this aspect of the matter But the modern movement, wth nascent perspicaciy, has disocited itself from this kind of char architectural logic and, with incipient idioey has attached itself to another, the lope of social manipulation ~ thus returning to the idea of changing people's patterns of action by proxy and using Flos oyster guick ptr of mem Serco SIE fortunate that our incompetence at planners means this s mone & matter of intention than actual effect. The idea sel is, of course, ‘old. Thomas More wrote: “The Utopian way fife provides nt cay he Rapist bifid omy bat ao one whch al bata probably wll a free ‘There 8. a0 danger of internal diversi, the one thing tht bas eso so many impregnable owns! RANDOMNESS AND PREDICTABILITY IN MAN AND IN. HUMAN SUPPORT-SYSTEMS iis posible to use various types of physical system to effect social change as tol of socal engineering Indeed, it iin the prevent natute of things that planners or architects have thruston them the onerous task of being abiters of other people's paterns of i, whether dey find this right and prope, or peculaly unenviabe” Becawe ofthis inbuilt decion-structue, itis easy enough to alk of reedom’ and alied niceties, bat not always 0 easy to mple>ment itin any given design sation. ‘Ther is however, one at inal point connected wit this which sso consienlyevetlooked that its worth developing a lide farther it has todo with the impesition of order, andthe difference benween order imposed on ‘inert physical systems and order imposed cn organic stein Some noted thinkers, among them Bergson, Wiener, have made dhe point that man i with varying degrees of foreefanes, dhe vanguard of antientropy ie. the tendency 10 greater order} The observation is made by analogy wih physica systems which invariably tend towards ent; i, toward greater randomness and disorder defeating if taken too erally and that certain modifications cat the popoved, There i certainly a ‘tendency to greater order’ in living systems, but an essential question emerges at what pit i chestinger and seems to me that the analogy is self: ‘order exerted in sch sca or ong ystems? Resrning to the division of physical systems ino those pro dacng negative imererence and those providing postive inter- ference, it would be sheer delusion to put forward the idea tha all positive interference i acceptable, and all negative interference un acceptable. There are many instances in which greater posses for individual action could be construe as being dangerous: that is as tending to induce a social structure regarded by many as too ‘unstable: Most of the deliberate andl consciously formulated rules by which we live our ines ate of a deliberately negative nature They are defensible only by vite of dhe belie that reed’ and hand. Such notions see to me to be ever “ordes go hae played, because itis not necessry to structure humon patterns of action to obtain anti-entopy of the overall socal sytem, The _rowing tendency towards order need not affect human beings in this way. The physical artefact systems, which are of course ini= mately connected with the biological organisms that create them ‘man, are far more suited to the role of becorning more and more onganized overtime, that, ant-eazopic (Fig, 9). We can take as an example ofthis the development of modern electronic iret. The aptness of compute ystems tothe task of ordering ‘mater fanction of their complexity ad speed of operation, “This may he simply construed a futher technologie ‘extension of man’, but itis ao the wsurper of some of anti-entopic man's ‘most hallowed functions in the soc sphere eg, selEorganizaton, Planning, making, storing retrieving) andl the Hberator of some of| ‘entropic man's most disintve characterises: nom preditabiity and deviation, Tes, think, of fandamental importance to make this dninetion ‘between the tendency to orde in socal systems an the tendeney to order in the physical systems on which society relies, becanse otherwise it would be difficult to stomach the comequences of Ahinking of human beings and society a the agents of ant-ensopy in the most obsious and direct seme, On such grounds «goad angument could be made for the Third Reich as man's greatest ant-entopic achievement ‘A particularly exquisite example of the failure to distinguish bberween what we could cll ‘harware’ and oftware’ entropy was found recently in dhe corespondence columns of Nae Sai Your stack onthe received judgements of preseatdy planing conte remind eof the experinent in which ne grup of Your chen wat ee el cee Peter ere ali eee aR Ie los na room contsningal the vial ad element seated rand Sambi abou, experimenting and eating when they fk Tie the second group manage tal in ulicent tinea to achieve hel ad ‘eight ary withthe et gr, Te ig irence was themes el bd 1 the random caters which the dat exprizenies ado op" ‘The correspondent went on to imply that this mes was sul ficiently disadvantageous to make us opt forthe controlled eating system. He added that he realized that jd ‘were ‘aesthetic’, but in my’ estimation they are not so much aes rents about mess thetic as expedient twas infact a clear case of having o choosebetween a ordering people so that they do not make @ mess, or ‘ordering physical support-sytems to minimize or eliminate the mess that reults from not dong «Fig 1}. ‘The above correspondent and many others opt for @on the rounds of conceptual simpli, but it sems to me that we should (atleast in our capacity as streamlined fom fb be opting or b.on the grounds of tral humanity What, though, could be the point of such tortuous redefining and realigning of terms? ts mest re ‘vant purpose might be to cause a sift of emphasis away fom the canonical ereed of finetions and architectural fanetonalis has tended to simpli notions of r= ose, and has given us only the anke-carlage of what isa much ‘more complex aff. te surely time to effect a reconsiuion of the corpus ‘Shifts of emphasis in matters of architectural theology tend to take ona transmundane dialectical quali ater lke those inter rminable arguments about che unity or duality of the body of| (Chris, The architectural see-siw & between form andl function, ‘meaning and purpose, symbol and wily, commodity and delight up one side and dove the other. It is «compelling game but we rust be ready to ignore it when necesary. Keeping the game simple atthe expense of ts cosrination with aly a species of seo cede ‘The utilitarian basis of Finally itis in dhe nature of things that architects and planers tend to teat of corporate entities when they ought obe treating of autonomies. Averaged neds and wishes are taken asthe guide, but the golden mean is only golden in certain abstract mates; in corporation housing schemes ici just plain mean, This applies both tothe phenomenal environment, with its subtle significances an its existential nuance, and tothe fnetons tha i fai, The ‘worl is nota gant anwork any more than itisa mammoth boiler house. Its, 0 use a diché, a stage .. a stage for action, not wer section but tei action, Anarchiecturefacitates action, Ie ought to be the human analogue of continuous creation ffom the void 1 Pa Conk Ani tin Ped, 98 2. That hisinahe Ma of Kant ds a el ere beter hist eed hn! sn Teal Chg ely Mende Aen, 85, ‘ise pin ad ay Ae at Rr Pe af Fie mee iri on hte ne Ao the Gree Imei’ by hing Moron Ma Mae on Made i Bo, Mas 25 5, Cat! esd Tal intron, 2. Qin Dra AR$, Aten 162 {Thame Mor, ip Harned 6. ‘A camp fhe aia dss eaten Dae Inca Se Now ih Les, 7 Ape 10. Se. Berpen, Cf 191K, Sng, Wha 9, hae 6X Wie, Te Ha if Hana a0 chapter 2 11 ater oj "Nar ick Cori, Ne Su Api 188tor ‘The Rights of Retreat and the Rites of Exclusion ss foward the Definion of Wallsome incidents in the environmental history of the war against information, Kill deal with strange way in which human beings sender their word inhabitable by eircurscribing and forgetting bout those parts of it that offend them Since we seer ell launched into an era of despondency and retrenchment, iis probs ably easier for us now to wlerstind that information is an isotropically good and wholesome commodity as we might once have thought, and tha immersion in a miew of indneriminate cerblems, images, mesiages and ideas might just as easly ds compose and confuse individuals and communities as enlighten them Information, as suc, may be morally neutral but ts cer- tainly not inactive. Te would seem likely that this view, which equates the flow of information with prychie disintegration and danger, has never been entirely submerged by more optimistic interpretations of social interaction. There have, afer all, always been people who regard thei life's work asthe expalion of alen perceptions Take, for example, Des Esscntes in J-K. Huysmans? Aguiat Nate, a fictional character certainly; but one based on the ais and ai tudes of the authors contemporary, the Comte de Montesquou- Feensae? es Esseintes wished surround himself with only those things far which he fel admiration or alfection; ll che was tobe eas out His life was conducted as an incesant ritual. His rooms his accoutrements, his food and dlink, echoed, reflected and een: forced his eccentric senbiltes and confirmed hi in his way of | Ie, He woul, for instance, partake ofa specially prepared meal that was entirely black in order to celebrate a morbid phase of his existence. But he found that even in his secluded apartment the more quotidian realities of Paris impinged too muh om his consciouses, so he decided to move himself to the remote and deserted subusb of Fonenay ach Teer with he desire to xa fe hate period of vider tn, the longing ee wo more tue of the human Grn ting in Paris betwen ur weal cr reaming the stress in serch of my ba taken an incening hold on him. Once he had ct ise off fom ‘coatemporry le, he hl rao o low ft to eters erage ‘which might breed repanance or get” Hiaving inthis way distanced himself fom al that he despised and all that disturbed him, Des Esscintes populated his new habitation with jewelencrusted torties, obscure carly Christin ‘sacks and the symbolical drawings of Oellon Redon and Gustave Moreau, making a secet enclsure for his own deletation heavily edhe with siguicanee for him alone. His wn se of living was successally conserved, but only at dhe expense of det Whe way chosen by Des Esscintes is only one of & myriad of methods by which people try to elpte certain aspects of an ire ddemable and chaotic universe, tempting o phase ou capricious and unsolicited perceptions inorder to generate afew moments of cessation of contact with the work at lrg, ‘alm within an otherwise distraught and confused exten. 11 is quite posible that very considerable internal ongunic pressures are brought t9 bear on this same hurnan problem. Mlneses and disorders such at semsory aphasia (a kind of ale censorship in which the patent unable to hear certain lasses of ‘words various other forms of amnesia neuroses and schizo- phreni { rein personal equilibrium in hostle and unyielding ci are now understood, at east by some, as inping attempts cumseances, rather than as malfunctions in dhemseles, ‘Thus can ‘he problem be soled within each of us, leaving the external word Jn much the same state a always. But it sometimes seems prefer able w approach cis ficulty by manipulating the external word, applying suryery to our suroundings rater than to the central nervous system, in order to preserve sme kind of relation between idea and realy The focus here moves from the adaptation of selfal modifications result: to the adjustment of nature. Enron ing from this recradescent Fear of the unasimilable have been undertaken in two distinc, but not mutually exclusive ways retreat and exclusion "The way of retreat asserts the right to retire frm the arbitrary assaults of a cacophonous and diarrayed worl, The terain of i structure, geography and architecture ~ depend on the ree the context, and on the ideologies and intentions of those iwolved, We have already noted the way in which Des Eseines performed the operation of severing connections. The iterate and rustic aachorite Sune Simeon Stites cut hinvel of ina very diferent sway. Simeon, ike many other hermits, wished to isolate himself fiom a vicereden civilization and 1 approach the Godly realm, Tocect both these desires simultaneously he climbed othe top of| 4 pillar to the eas Antioch in about AD 430 and remained there unl his death some thy years later, Surman by dsolaon, ‘exposed and atthe meey of the elements, but elevate if on iolically towards the metaphysical sphere, he ed an uncom. promising and bizare existence imply to avoid the evil of co- habitation. In the barrenness of the Syrian desert the final ‘mortification ofthe flesh could take place, Peitetial exercises that seered towards selPeortue, Fs, vgils and prayer were Simeon’ solace on the play; ie being, in self, merely a preparation. "The considered planning of this kind of hermetic seclusion ‘merged only with organized monasticism. The achievement of | the Carthusians ~an order founded in France inthe lat eleventh ‘century was in the words of David Knees, to petely or dom ‘eticat whichever metaphors prefered the lie ofthe desert.” “The solitude of the sites of antiquity and the hermits of the Nitra and Sects deserts is recreated inthe Charterhouse withthe help of some architectural prope (Fig. 2). walls but around cach individual monk to form a small, intoverted garden, cell or thu fr prayer, seep and work ss within this paddock, while atone comer thete isa closet connected to a primitive sewage system, allowing all the boily functions to be satisfied within this small, compas. Here the paradoxical possibilty of densely packed nest OF incised cra tree The membre each hive of fiom the other: despite their physical proximity, the architecture reduces the probability of chance human contacts it 11s of course, more usual to fad people tying not to inde, but to avoid, mortification, In such situations the ethos of the reureat would doubiless change, though the dese for escape and the necesity for the erection of frontiers and thresholds between ‘man and man would remain All selPsolaton, be ic hermetic or palatial? would seem cin vole the participant in a withdeaval ino the privacy of brave ile communes or ute inva autonomy: In every instance there isan attempt to senike the world in abyohute consonance ‘with ase idea of it This might be een either a a perilous course (or a a kind of structural stabilization, but thas the advantage at Jeast of creating a precinct within whose boundaries there exists a topology, a causal sequence, and a purposiveness of some salient significance. It can be understood a the provision of a mantle ta ‘envelop the inhabitants within a familiar landscape populated with sanguine mementos ~a place to correspond wih, and therefore india, our ideological prejuies, ‘One an extend this nsion foe individual and small groups to ation and races. The 1 500-nile-long Great Wall of China wat conceived in 2216 by Shih Hwang Ti, the sme illustrious ‘emperor who decreed tht all books shouldbe burned, save thote fon the usefl ars Le agriculture, medicine and necomaney)."The ‘Wall can be considered asthe principle of information exchusion ‘wre large, as indeed was the burning of the books. A somewhat ponderous and iconic ancient Chinese prover, ‘Have no fear of the tiger from the south, but beware dhe roster fram the north" indicates thatthe Wal was envisaged as being shield against theraucous voice of an alien culture as well asa prudent strategic tol ‘An incredulous Edwardian historian once wrote: "There a tho living today who do not regard the Great Wall asa batier ‘against human fos, but go $0 far as to suggest that twas «huge stone dragon intended to counteract the effets of evil spi Only now, in an epoct equally threatened by newfangled means of knowing, $i possible w underwand his quain idea in sympathetic context, rather than as just a ridiculous example of animism. The Wall was, in any case, never a miliary success though it was a wondrous achievement in what we might call military metaphysics, inthe expulsion of confusion: a national ‘raising of the hands tothe ees. As we might judge from the Chinese experience, it would be ‘wrong to imagine that erat inevitably lead to fragmentation of social fabric, for even ata personal sale these private words are not so sequestered a they first appear, Always there is ome reciprocation intended, even i only a message oF gesture 0 a Iyporhedeal posterity. Not only thi, but alo a hint (atthe very least) of condemnation of the presents and from condemnain comes the seed of something more general than panicul, more concrete than dreamy ~like the queer situation described in Jorge Lis Borges's Tl, Ugh Orbit Ten" in which everyone begins to dream the same fictional world, which consequently becomes ‘he real one. This meta realm hasbeen discovered by accident, yet because it has been revealed is elements and accoutrements start, ‘wnaccountably, to inert themuches into what had been thought of as. 1 more resistant realty ~eroppng up in od places, in ever greater numbers, as time goes on. In such a spirit are our ite palisads of reflection, grace and solitude erected alo: they are ‘often ambivalent, wanting at once to exeape the influences of u tempered communication with society and vo be heeded by it All the same, the immediate solution of the problems of mental sie by the subdivision of the body politic into innumerable fasons and fragmented domains of experience has not abrays been in eeping with the temper of past ages This, for instance, is how William Morris disposes of the onsily of such eve atomization: Sai. here i thie posi owt ery man should quite Indepence ofeery ce and hat asthe rao o ery sul be Aled’. He ole hard at me fra conde td en bu ut laughing very hey; and cones at pine hi” The intellecual radon in the West has, with great consistency always championed the causes of unity. It has always regarded our Vision of realty asa corporate and nota private alfa, Rouen, that advocate of berry, even suggested that citizens ought to be {feed be fee" by which he seems to have meant that they ought to be made to do the right ding, which are by definition the ‘espresions of feedom, ‘The archaeological remains of this desire to force people to be “tree nthe imerests of an isotopic civilization ~ a eiiletion ‘whose membersalltend toward the same goal ~ areal evident in ‘the curious ariculations and aims of much extant building, For instance, as Lam sure many have noted, half the domiiary public bulliags erected in England during the nineteenth centry are Alivded along their axes of bilateral symmetry by a solid and unpunctred wall, oF some other suitable obstacle, in order to Clarify the murky relationship beween mile and female: infant school was my own inuoduetion wo this dinintly architectaral means of intelectual claifcation Thus its that ideas about the nature of tinge ‘creating noel topos which reflects the patterns of it own all too Thuman, causes, and which becomes, in dhe end eljusiyng if ‘only because t9 ignore the existence of a wall isan act of the sheerest fol; leading inevitably to concussion and unsightly abrasions, built ito the structure of our surroundings,‘We begin to sce now that there ean obverse tothe personal right of retreat the eoeporat rite of exchsion, So if one route to a meaningful extence in a dxjunet, unintellege social situation i to em i, another ~ equally efcacious— ito change its shape This second way of expelling the terrors of overcommunion in series on the body pole the discriminating lines that separte like frm unlike, and amputates, or hermetically seal of the more rebellious and distasteful parts. The rites of separation and exc sion ae at once more arcane and more pragmatic than the rights of rereat, A daincton is made between wef or hares forms of conmunication on the one hand, ad deleterious varieties, and rich energy s devoted to the elimination, represion or rehab ation of the setors of society who indulge in the Late. Al that seem o be needed asa mative force sa strong sense of retiude and purpose. Jus as an ee irtated and plague by apiece of git will encapouate i in a soft sheath of ffctionless excretion, x0 human beings will deal with others of their own kind by whom they fel threatened by enclosing them in inoffensive brick ~ and doing so with a natural lack of remorse that traps to believe that this behaviour, oo, iolgialy sanctioned. By a curious mitror inversion of significance, the abodes of peaceful rereat have, in the past, ben turned nto the habitat of the ouicast and reprehensible, the unmearing, incomprehensible, or vile. Castles have been turned into prions, monasteries and convents into pententaris, rasp houses, lvarettos and lunatic taylan. The fit mode penal Brive ‘was Edward VE private palace before it was turned over tothe City for the correction of loiteers, gypsies, vagabonds and itinerant in 1555.” But maybe we should noc hang too great a ‘cit ianer meaning on thi reversal a there are some obvious physical reasons for it the same reasons that made t posible for ‘group of Cuban anarchists t take over the prisons on the Isl de Pitos a few years ago, and for the American Indians to ewanrennousecommandeer the fort penitentiary of Alcaraz for datinetly Hons Penitental purposes Ivalla matter of numbers, tetitory and the Placing of boundary When Louis XIV and Mazarin published the Edict of 1656 on the confinement of the indigent, insane and pauper population in specially built or adapted Hépitaux Générans,* and when Quentin Crisp, an eccentric and apparently extrvert homosexa, recently decided that he did not want ogo ouside of his one-room flat anymore, they were atempting very sear manipulations ach tended to exclude the knowledge and sensation of the most dlaturing insluences by erecting a barrier between himself andthe objects of his disaffection, Because of Quentin Crisps megalor ‘maniac urge to enclose the rest of the sentient universe, he finds that he is left with anly room in which to build his enclave of meaning order But Louis and Mazarin had less extravagant aims, and were more humble when faced withthe surrounding Alison of orgasmic intercourse. They simply wanted to exch a certain part of the universe ~ about «wo per cent of it all hose incatious, immoral, mpaitic beings who insted on being exta- ‘vaganly poor or mad, Inboth cases the incision was made and the Darviess setup on the grounds of what used to be call aesthetics the ugly and opprobrious being masked. A noble purpose for sure. In thee and lke situations, walk are the martial delaration of the intent 10 vepe all dlinguent percept and ll iit eom- ‘munion They are not simple barriers to energy-transfer, bu bart- cades that prevent enteopy of meaning and preserve the holistic and unitary concept of our dream world, beta personal ora nie ‘versal dream, by eliminating that pat of the other more disparate world which fil to conform to it. Wall are the aemoury that preseres our personal integrity against the inroads of the rest of humanity and nature Bue all thie acems to ill wth received opinions on the pur poses of architectural fabri. Inded, we might well ak whether the sole function of architectural enclosure sto heepoutinclement weather, as one might infer from some of Buckminster Fuller's reflections on the subject. The answer would of course be yes only the inclemency is not entirely meterlogcal, nor are the barriers catrly negative, fort not the case that, in shuting out an immanent secor of external reality one is obliged to substitute frit another that sulfers fewer fas? Consider ithe way: we wed 1 bild walls then ng pictures on them which obscured the very views thatthe pictres were supposed to represent, if as was likely they conformed to the principles of naturale realan [Now the same thing is done with back projection on diaphanous, non-Euclidean membranes oF by the holographic conjuring of rural scenery onto London Bridge: the idea i tll present referred images in place of those that lurk beyond, ‘Icmight well be that, owing to ove insatiable appesite andl desire for sensation, mere excision without some compensatory sub- stitute tke the pictures onthe wall, would drive a person mad ordistracted more quickly than dhe eos that reigns without. Sel it has not been beyond the hounds of human ingenuity to propound the virtues of the perfecy negative wall ~a doctrine that would lead tothe otal eclipse ofall thing ouside. To lustate the way in which thibleak dogma came about, there ian incident recounted by the French rationalist philosopher, the olds that am eney interest in flowers can be timated by laude Helvesius, in which locking chile wp i room tht is entirely emp, but fora por of ‘looms, Under normal conditions the child might not even notice the existence ofthe things, but under the peculiar citcumstance of | having nothing ele in the world to concern himself with, they ‘would leave a lasting mmpression on the fal rae of his memory. Ie is thus, concludes the philosopher, that punishment. fequenthy Aetermines the taste ofa young man, and makes him painter of | flowers." The path of progres ofthis notion leads through some strange territory during the eighteenth and nineteenth centres, especially jn connection with educational, reformatory and eleemonynary intuions. A few examples ofits architectural ramifications will bbe examined belo ‘An incident inthe 1830s mark the inception of a methodical approach tothe environmental problems of screening; the bith, oUt, of the scienoe of information destriction, There was con cer at this time over the fact that convits ia Milbank Penien ian, despite separation into single cel, could sill communicate With those in adjacent cell. Such intercourse beeween the cons ddemnned was fee be debilitating for much the same reason a8 Helvetus's pot of flowers was felt be eising: so when Abel Blouet a French architect with considerable experience of prison design, and. Michael Faraday, scientific inventor extraordinary, were invited to collsborate inthe building of ten experimental cell partion wall Fig. 3), thei efforts were dominated by a desire 10 ‘revent such mutual subversion, Blowet defined their ask thus: ‘odeelop a mean of canstructon that woul fr poe, proven ‘communicates betwen the proners conn i conten ele In using iereglarsurfces, such as those shown on the cavity faces of dhe walls in I, I and TV, Faraday intention vas to seramble the patra of sound waves as they passed fot arco brick. Words were o lose their deiniion in much the sme way as an co's ight would be effaced and ified ast passed through dappled las. The effets of this randomizing technique in reducing the sense of the message were found to be sgiticant, yet the extravagance of breaking so many’ bricks rendered the thing too cathy The best performance of all was obtained by into- ducing «wo limp sheets of sail doth into one of these serrated cavities {V) The ests were caried out by enclosing somcone in eel on one side of che wall geting hm to shout ¢ various pitches and vl umes a second party; the oer side ofthe wal, who recoded the amount of information he received. The important thing to note in this procedure is that the general am was not rection of noise transmission, bat reduction of the transmission of sgnant ‘mesg act noise redvetion was foun ta be greatest in dhe wall section sown in X, but it was til possible o hear word through if they were shouted in a high-pitched voice; consequent, i vas les favoured than the section in TV, through which any word was transposed iato a muddled blur by the ime ie reached the othe side This sie to extizpate all posible communication betwen persons of ‘dubious or ‘dangerous character was common to a ‘most all advanced socal thinkers inthe Age of Reason, from the sxteenh-century humanist Jun Las Vives, who provided a plan for the regulation of the paupers of Bruges” tothe Usiiarian Faiwin Chadwick, whose 1834 Poor Law recommendations thoughts echo the same doctrine of regenerative excommini- cation" but for very diferent reasons), The image by which it wasperpetrated was that of the epidemic. Vice was contagious dt- ‘ate of the spirit and, contain ie sel propagation, isolation of the carriers was necessary; fr, unlike a common disease, the mal- aise of morals was capable of being intensified by association with ‘others of ke mind ~ of begeting yet greater evi by kind of | vicious resonance, So it was that the acoustical performance of | these walls was powerful fore for the good, They compartmen- ‘alized and anaesthetized the danger in thesous of edher men, and ‘who isto aay that the walled-atden plots of the Charterhouse were conceived in any more opimiatie a spirit, or indeed hat it modern counterparts, such as Martin Pavley’s Time House, are Sincamentally very liferent. ‘But to return to the Enlightenment idea of isolating the various ‘lfersve categories of humanity: the Bice (pctared above in its maturity) shows in what grand fashion this salvational ceed of | ‘the mute wall was implemented. More like a densely populated and independent proxnce than a hospital onthe outskirts of Paris, its perimeter wall measure almost mile, Within this nin ar a proliferation of cours, wards and cells, each assigned to given sang of human faly or deviance: the amos cicalar bank of calls for the criminally insane and violent lanaticy,the court n the centre contains abandoned infants, while imbecile children inhabit a block near the midae ofthe plan and so on~the kinds ‘of folly and misfortune are ever so carefully caleulated to avoid the ‘magnification of defets that resue from exposure tothe degraded spectacle of other species of depravity other kinds of deform Corresponding to this new moral taxonomy there is a mane facture terrain which supplements the terrain of mountains, ifs and valleys wih ha of walls, paths, stairs, windows and gates ~the sereens, canals and fiters by which unconorming passions are curved, directed and iferentiate, Tn the Bicétre a simplicity of purpote i evident. The class- ‘ations multiply in @ vain attempt to impose some meaning segregation ont a variegated populace ~ but this ial Tn one of ‘the very ealest public institutions forthe reception of the insane, ‘the Pauper Lunatic Asylum builtin Wakefield in 1815-18, a more complex strategy is put tothe test In this design the veiling of ‘eta kinds of perception judged 1 be mentally a physically en- feebling is combined with the purposeful revelation of the healing senery of nature. The architecture ils the role of an enviton= mental censor and propagandist, deliberately giving rise to a ‘onion that could be likened to an externalized andl generalized version of sensory phan, ‘The Wakefield asylum was designed by two loca architects named Watson and Pritchett under the guidance of Samuel Take, A notable pioneer of reform and governor of “The Rettea’ a asylum in York Take regarded the asylam a lesan escape fon the word than a proces ~ proces that would inevitably lead vo the cure of mental disorder. His plan was divided into its pars accordingly It was pli nto wo msevor image sections, one halldestined for male inmates, the other for females. Each half was then further subdivided « accommodate the various remedial stages of hinacy, fom the uncontoable and refractor, though the amenable but a yet unredeemed, to those on the way to eure, and ending with the ‘convalescent class, almost eady 1 re-enter the work of sanity Each clas has its own circumscribed domain of sleeping cells day rooms, exercise yard and efectres The point of this judicious separation of the tages of madness was not sme simple administrative rationalization, bu wa, i el to facta reconery. ‘Te general medical consensus was thatthe diturance and agitation of the imbalanced mind by iregular pereptions such as thow afforded by the even moe insane, was the sures way to impede progress toward reason (right reason being, by definition, a state of revolved and unperturbed cal). ‘The implementation of the positive side of thixbeie ean be seen in the ‘xing up ofthe centre portions of each of the ang yards into sor of plateau to reveal views of the surrounding bucolic country= sie hat might soothe deranged minds (he plateau raise the eye- level above the top of the boundary wal, but kept the inmates at a suitable ditance fom the other clases of natin the adjacent ats by shelving off ata steep angle towards the party wall The architecture of this ination i fine example of the fabrication fof a synthetic geography whic, by a shrewd process of conceal ‘ment and divlosure of certain facets of meant to provoke an almost inyluntary improvement in human natura reflex movement towards the best ofall posible states of ‘mind init inbabitamts. (OF all the means of shutting out experience, suchas distance (as in New York World Utopian colonies, and the practice of exile) or chasm ad mountain asin Shangri-La, the Lost World and Mount Auto) the wale cles the most adaptable. Yet he history of the wall as a means of moral, aesthetic and social exclusion (for the three categories sem vo converge at this point), is unsritten. No fe exterior world, was body has seriously approached atchitectate from this direction, possibly because iti in the end, the route that induces most ‘ynicism, for through it the manufactured world is cen tobe the prime stabilizing force in a universe of tacit mutual misappre- Jenson, misinterpretation and misanopy: ‘One cannot help but fel that retreat is ows more acceptable, gentler an altogether more lovely realization of the current resi= gence of existential despair than the crude Procrusean surgery of| exclusion, but both could be considered, in a certain sense, a¢ defeats. So maybe what we have sen emerging in the past few year snot so much the budding von ofa young paradise asthe birth ofa new techni of human failure.” The dese fr sanctuary is with us once more1 Sx fr eampl at alin Se ie! ug ol 0.6 e170, in tae, ae Spade, ts Tey Hae: 2.4 Hanuman dst Niemen, 1968 alain y Rare i char. 63 eae, Mat May NY, 15,5100 RD Langan A. ern, Sn Mates i iar 80, peers Hgpaee Deny “Dmne Monmicie n roti id y Bayes ton Oni p40. sto eet the dots cou arrangement of cel il aber in Cardin mona, Th ne ing he fr of cerbiiermaniy eseo ‘ime lune in aston vse a ae he pa of riod. 4 Ao ionmncof which Mae Anti’ Aran mill pede t the Chews de Ramble Ser Hugh Hino, Ne lm (Herod ‘et 1960p. 162. 10, Hiland Das The Gr Wal hi’, Wide of Pee by JA Hanne eno, 15 ot2 p32 12 dys acdc, 170, 1. Win Mor Na ra kf Rt ann, 1970 76. UW JeuoiesRownes, Th Sil Cota armindorh,1968), bak ‘hae? 15. FA Cope Bia Ro! Hopi, 16, Mitt Rac, ato ict: Mnf Iai Af Rn (Can, 97 per 2,-The Grea Caine eke prone tpt our dt atch ores et tans lai ena ad eT wee ht re ot 2 ny tha yd ote he eel ncn ae ew ‘iy rac porarewe p r e poes ee 18 Che He Tro Ma ded Wy Hope Len, 177, pee 18, A Dene Mout, Apr are md a Pi 7 8, 20. Inh-De Steno Pager’ wren 124-77 ranatelin aly Tne Por i eed by ER, Se arn 185 21, Chui, eng the ft etary of the Por Lam Cami, he prt wee we yO tk ir ae dew wet hat 22, Ya Bey, ine Pr 100), 28, Who and Pict, lg latin Sti ft le Lado idk, 11, Sad Tae’ Pratl Ha Bb anno Parent he eu ac om, oo, ate ise rpecy ger "The Bath he Anan’ 24 Indi fiton » morherpes ale wa che oe ey by Pal Seeerbart ad Br Tut, who “Ghai 2 ‘tment the sgl ring prone cli y Bet ay ‘ening in cin, The pr or apes Ae lp. ‘tec th big wees ea nea gy were ge Hic Cale of al een Inch mmeisn ocs wold ade he Imabrcies othe crue hg se fw cen the pe ‘hue the cin Alara be anocealti iqeon a pne lig of rape Hamad en the ight oh eons ‘ld cng or tet of rts enc af Smet, Ta ‘asa dec ele by Conran Spe Lan, 65. 25 Symp of i if erptton wee eb he Chae 7 wn ‘he miooning a communes by eters of al nner da eve a Din see ial ninth myc esi of ‘irre ao palo The prea nw wight cle ‘he ro ian reg ru he Da WF a ter nos ad ete we ring oth potion big or aac Ps beret apy wlan!‘Ondinary things contain the deepest mysteries. At fs itis diate 1 sce in the conventional layout of a contemporary house anything but tbe crytalzation of cold reason, necesty and the ‘obvious and because of thie we are eal led nto thinking that a commodity s0 transparently unexceptional must have been wrought directly from the stulf of basic human needs. Indeed, practically all housing stds, whatever ther scope, are founded fn this asumption. “The struggle to find a home’, declares a prominent expert, ‘and the desire forthe shel, privacy: comfort. and independence that a howe can provide, are fair the world cover From such a vantage-point the characterics of modern housing appear to transcend our own culture, being lifted tothe status of universal and tineess requisites for decent Bving This i easly enough explained, since everything ordinary seems at once neutral and indispensable, but it isa delusion, and a delsion with consequences 100, as it hides the power that the customary arrangement of domestic space exerts over our lives, and atthe same time conceal the fact that ths organization hasan origin and a purpose. The search for privacy, comfort and independence through the agency of architecture is quite recent, and even wen these word fist came into play and were used in relation to household als, heir meanings were quite diferent frm those ‘we now underuandl So the following article rather crade and sehematc attempt to uncover just one of the secrets of what snow so ondnary THE PLAN AND ITS OCCUPANTS. IT anything is described by an architectural plan it isthe nature of hhuman relationships since the elements whose trace ic records — walls doors, windows and stairs ~ are employed fist to divide and then selectively to reunite inhabited space, But what is generally absent in even the most laborately strated building isthe way human figures wil occupy it This may be for good reasons, but ‘when figures do appear in architectural drawings, they tend not to be substantial creatures bu emblems, mere signs of lle, a, fr ex- ‘ample the amochieoutines that tr up inParker- Moti lyout. Surely, though, if the circle were widened to take in material beyond architectural drawings, one might expect dhere robe some tally between the commonplaces of house panning and the erdi- nary ways in which people dispove themseives in relation to each other. This might seem an odd connection to make a fist, but however diferent they are however tealite and particular dhe descriptions, pictures or photographs of men, women, chien and other domestic animal doing what they do, however abstract and diagrammatic the plans ~both relate back to the same funda ‘mental sue of human relationships, ‘Take the portrayal of human figures and ake howe plans from a ‘iver me and place look at them together as evidence of way of life, and dhe coupling beeen everyday conduct and architectural ongarization may become more laid, Tht isthe simple method adopted in what follows andl thats the hope contained in it THE MADONNA IN A ROOM The work of Raphael as painter and architect offers a convenient ‘opening into the subject, if only because i ves a clea indication thatthe ideal of secluded domesticity is rather more local than we ae inlined thi Rapliae’s entre work the intention i simply to extract from his artand architecture the evidence of a particular mora xa ths whic isinplict init and ndcativeof the Gime, not juni att Tot daily ransactons During space began to dominate painting Previous to this, the fascination with the human body had centred on physiological det: the (OF course this fs noc an attempt to review Talian High Renaisance dhe interplay of figures inanticultion of fmbs, the modelling of sinew flesh and musele, and the rendering of individual comeness, Ie was only inthe sixteenth century that bodies were atenuated into the grace or magnified into the sublime, then brought together in peculiarly intense, «carnal, even lascivious pores by Leonardo, Michelangoo, Raphael and their followers, Subjectmater, too, was often modified in favour of this new conception. The treatment of the Vingin and (Chill illustrates this wel. Already in the fiteenth century the posture of the tationally enthroned matron with deme infant raised above the rest of the word, both staring fixedly out into nothing, had become lest heratie, yt they sl etained thee oly and untouchable tranquility (Fig 2. Tn the ssteenth century they descended from ther pedestal tobe engulled by animated groups ‘of false Figures sharing thee company as in Raphaels Madina dt topanat Fe, 8), sia of 50 many “Holy F These gatherings were a figment of the artic imagination, with tno basis in any Biblical text. Nevertheless, it was fcion that served to populate a painting with characters whose mutual adorasons were dainty sensual in destination, however spiritual their origin, In Raphael's Madea, the figures are not so much composed in spice as joined ogee despite i. They look covely fn one another, stare myopially ito eyes and at flesh, gras, ‘embrace, hold and finger eachother’ bodies asf dei recogition rested more firmly on touch chan on sight. Only the child St John breaks this intimate cre of reciprocity by acknowledging the ‘observer And these figures are more than the subject of he pie ‘oe; they ae the picture, they ft. The individual phyiologial perfection of each body was nove lot in a web of linked embraces And gestures; something not eniely new to painting, but reaching ‘climax of accomplishment at this time So ifthe tally bere figures and plans isto be sought any= ‘where it might wel be sought here, in painting where personal relationships were transhted into a compositional principle tran- scending subject-matter, and where solciations between sansand morals alike seem so exaggerated t0 us — oF rather they ‘would do so if we were o think of them as plausible ustrations of conduct In 1518 oF 1519 Cardinal Giuliano de’ Medict commissioned an ambitious project for avila sted on the les of Mente Maro in Rome Only part of thi vast scheme, later tobe called the Villa “Madama, was complete. The supervision a the work was caried ‘out by Antonio da Sangallo, but the conception was unquestion- ably Raphael's Here, then, was sumptuous sting for daily ie produced by anartist who had helped to deseerate che Virgin in is paintings. A laboured reconstruction of the vila published by Percier and Fontaine in 1809 emphasize axial symmetries, mak- ing the whole complex into one unified pile of buileing stuck nto the hillside, aejusting the layout of rooms ofc what was, at that time, the established idea of trict clasical conformity (Fg. 4 How could Raphael have designed it any other way?! Yet the portion that was actually bul, and the east surviving plan (Fig 5) show something quite deen Overall symmetry would have created repetitions, with each room and each sination having is mirrored counterpatt on the ‘other side ofthe building, but inthe early plan this never occas Although most spaces within the villa were symmetrically com- posed, there were no duplications; every room was diferent Union ately apprehended; the building as a whole was diverse. Yet, despite this striving to create singulaiy of place, its very iil to ell iom the plan which part ate enclosed, and which are open, as the relationship between all the spaces i much the san throughout. The chambers, logis, courts and gardens al regter ts walled shaps ~ like large rooms ~ which add up to fil the site "The building scems 1 have been conceived as an accumulation of| these enclonures, withthe component spaces being more regular than the overall patern, This could not have come from the ity was retrcted tothe parts where could be immedi- ILIIEIIT] fLTTTETTTT ‘ty Rr if‘ulimately classical Raphael dreamed up by eighteenth-eentry academicians and preyed upon by nineteenth-century romans. Percer and Fontaine's eetfed reconstruction, with its as ‘metrical space inside syrmeticalervelope, illustrates the po at which the orignal Raphael ceased to make rel sense; the point at which dhe latent structure of inhabited space bur through the confines of elasical planing in is architect Ie had its pale in his paintings, too; the point at which carlty shone through the ‘vacuous signalling of gestures inhi figure compan Doors Looking atthe Vila Madama plan as a picture of socal relation= ships, wo organizational charactrintes become apparent. Thowgh ‘numbered amongst the things we would nowadays never do, these are crucially important evidence of the social mili the vila was Goer edi pie Fie, the rooms have more than one door some have vo done, sv thee, others four ~ a feature which, since the catty years of the nineteenth century has been regarded as a fault in ‘domestic buildings of whatever kind o size. Why?'The answer wat vena great length by Robert Ker. Ina characterise warning he reminded readers of Thr Gila’ Hous (1864) of the wretched inconvenience of ‘thoroughfare rooms’, whieh made domesticity and retirement unobiainabe. The favoured alternative was the ‘ermal oom, with only one stately place doe int the rest of the house ‘Yetexacly the opposite advice had been frnished by the Itaian theorits who, flowing ancient precedent, thought that more ‘doorsina room were preferable tofewer: Alber fr instance afer raving atention tothe great variety and number of doors in Roman buildings, said, Is also convenient to place the doors in sch a Manner that they may lead a8 many Part ofthe eifce 4s posible.” This was specifically recommended for publicbuildings, but applied also to domestic arrangement, Ie generally meant that there was a door wherever there was an adjoining room, making the house « matrix of discrete but thoroughly imerconnected chambers. Raphae’s plan exemplifies this though itwasin fact no more than ordinary practice tthe tine (Fg 8) So, between the I feverion of a simple notion about. comenionce, In sstzenth fans andl Kerr, there had been a compete century Italy 2 convenient rom had many doors; ia nineteenth century England a convenient room had but one. The change was important nt only because it necessitated a rearrangement ofthe entire house, but also because it radically recast the pattern of domestic it, Along with the iting of dors came another technique aimed at minimizing the necessary intercourse between the various members of a household: the systematic application of inde- pendent acces. In the Vila Madama, a jn virally all domestic archiwecture prior 1 1650, there is no qualitative cninetion be- tween the way through dhe house nd dhe inhabited spaces within it. The main entrance i at che southern extremity of the vila, A senczcular fight of steps leads Uarough a wareted wall ito 4 forecourt, up another ight of steps into a columaned hill, through 4 vauked pasuge into the central circular court; thus Far a pre scribed sequence through five spaces preliminary to the more specie and intimate ares of the houichold. From the circular ‘court however, there are ten diferent routes into the villa apart rents, none with any particular predominance. Five lead diretly ‘off the court or its annexes, the go via che magnificent loge withthe walled garden beyond, and two via the bekedere. Once Inside its necesary to pas fom one tom to the next then othe next, to traverse the building, Where pastages and staircases ate sed, as inevitably they are, chey neatly always connect just one space to another and never serve as general distributors of move= rent, Thus, despite the precise architectural containment offered. by the addition of room upon room, the villa wa in terms of| ‘occupation, an open plan relatively permeable tothe numernss members of the household al of whom men, women, chien, servans and vistors ~ were obliged to passthrough a matrs of connecting rooms where the day-to-day busines of ile was cartied ‘on. Teas inevitable that paths would intersect during he eoureof| a day, and tha every actty was Hable to intercession unless very Sefnite measures were taken to avoid it As with the multiplying of| doors, there was nothing musa) about this t was the rue in Talian palaces, wills and farms ~ a customary way of joining rooms that hardly affected the syle of architecture (which cou ‘equally well be gothic or vernacular), bit most certainly affected these of lie. From the Taian writers who described contemporary evens, nothing is more evident than the large numbers of people who congregated to pass the time, watch, discuss, work or eat and the relative frequency of recountable incident amongst them, At one fend of the spectrum of manners, Castigone, a cee fiend of| Raphael, recorded in The Qrter four consceutive evening con- -versations supposed to have taken place during March 1507 atthe Ducal Palace of Urbino (sel an example of the marx planning descrite above. Nineteen men al four wemen participated and apparently there were sila gatherings every day alter super? [No doubt The Coen was a purified, elaborated and sentimen- talzed account of actual evens, bu the portrayal ofthe group at 8 natural recourse for passing the time isin perfect accor with other sources Its known thatthe major of characters were palace guests atthe ine ‘The nether end of the spectrum was described by Cellini (1500-71) in his auobiogeaphy. The passionate, violent and in- temperate creatures inthis work hardly resemble the refined witty conversational in the eer: so vivid isthe contrast, they could «aly be mistaken for separate species. Yet Cel ike Casigione,‘requied an active flow of characters on whom impress his own iimitable ego, In both, company was the ordinary condition and solitude the exceptional state There is another telling slaty which at fist seems to con trait the git of this aril; nether writer ever deseibed a place In The Gat few byperboic sentences slice to eulogize the Urbino Palace, one ofthe great work of Talia Renaisance a chitecture and not one word is sud rom begining to end, either directly oF indirectly, about the appearance, cont arrangements of the apartments which seve asthe seting‘This is all the more strange because Castiglione likened himself to a pinter of a scene in his preamble. Clin autobiography, to, 0 packed with elaonsips of enmity; lve, ambition and explo tation that they entirely fl the space of hishook. He locates events by saying where they occured, but these indications are ike re ws, form oF erences to a mental map, No landscape or ctyacape is mentioned Jn even the most cursory terms. Topography architectae and far nishings are likewise absent, not even aie as backdrops to the Intrigues, cabal rump and catastrophes that he recites. Here are the most explicit references to architecture outside of is sl tary confinement in the Castello S, Angelo, The fists an account ‘ofthe cicumstances surrounding aeobbery as was ony ting ate age of twenty-nine, Tad an charming and ‘ery bet oung gil my maiaerat «Because of thi Thad my room at quite adtane fom where the workmen lp, and abo some way fom shop. Thept the young gt inn ramshachle becom advning sme Toc woslep very heal an deeply Soi happened when ane ight a the broke no te sbop. ‘The second isan attempt to engineer a recone with a patron while bedridden {had ysl cote othe Medi Fle, upto where thei wea i tye one esting there, wing fr the Det come ps. goad few fer mine fom the court ame yp ad hated wih me The third describes conontaion with a potential ass ef ome in ary hough a usa Ta wlan ad Utd slog (Sra ine expecting et mpi Us eo op Tad reached heed ofthe et, ad was ring var the arse Pace ving the corer a wie beth a wal when Ts the Corian stad ‘pat wale io theme of the ad" Rarely architecture penetrate into the narrative and then only fas an integral feature of some misadventure oF encounter. The Cellini autobiography and. The Coutiarshare a total absorption with dhe dynamics of human imercouse to the exclusion of all ‘ls, and that why their physical sting so hard wo discern, The sae predominance of figure over ground, the same oer whelning of objects by animation, can be observed in painting, The igures of the Madan dlispanaa occupy a room, but apart fiom the recessed window atthe right-hand edge of the painting there is no indication of what the room slike, The shape of the room does not appear to affect the distribution or interrelation of| the figures. This isthe case also in Raphael's mos architectonic fies, The Sha of ths, where the vale logs is acorded as ‘much detailed attention as the throng of philosophers who occupy a (Fg. 7). The effect of dhe bulking here finan arrangement which could well hae been the inspiration for the loggia at the Vila ‘Madans) i, anything to concentrate the assembly but oer wise the architecture leaves no decisive mark on the shape of s0- ety Only the more peripheral and selEconcerned figures use the building wo support thee bodes, whether on steps the odd block of marble, or plaster bases Allof this raises an unexpected dificlyits not easy to explain how, when the Ialans were so wrapped up inhuman affairs, they developed a refined, elaborate achitectre which they hardy had time to noice and which seemed tole outside the orbit of social I, Pechaps that is an exaggeration, but the paradox remins The marvellous modeling ad exquisite decoration of the VillaMadama logis (Fig 6), based on Nero's Golden House and the combined work of Raphadl, Giallo Romano and Giovanni da Udine, cannot be explained bythe urge to impress or in terms of iconography alone. These must have played their part, but such Sensiility 10 form does not issue from status or snot lke water fiom a tap. However, it could be that the incidental and accessory nature of architecture wae preciely what led it tobe come so visually ich, OF all the senses, sight i the most appro- for thingy a the boundary of experience and that i exactly room, particulaly a large room, provides; an edge o pr ception. In the immediae precines of the body, the other senses prevail The examples given above, though hardly furnishing & proof serve to indicate that the fondness for companys proximity and incident in sisveenth-ceatury Taly eorregonded nicely enough With the format of architectural plans ts perhaps too easy for historians of domestic architecture to look back ard se in theiatri of connected rome a primitive sage of planning that begged for evolution lite atempt was made w arrange the parts of the bul independently functioning sets oF to ningun between “serving” and ‘served But this was not the absence of principle: for all the ilferent sie, shapes and circumstances of the roms in the Vila ‘Madama, che connectivity wa the same throughout. This did not happen by accident. I too, was principle. And maybe the reason ‘wy twas no thrown ina high rele by theists was simply that it was never putin question. to something mote differentiated, since PASSAGES “The history ofthe coridor asa device for removing tafe fom rooms has yet to be writen. From the litle evidence T have so far managed to glean, it makes is fst recorded appearance in England at Beaufort House, Chelsea, designed around 1597 by John Thorpe” While exdently ill something of a curiosity its ‘power was beginning tobe recognized, for on the plan was writen ‘A onge Entry through all. And ae Ttalianate architecture became ‘established in Englands, ionially enough, did che central crs dor, while atthe same time sarees began toe attached tothe corridors and no longer terminated in rooms ‘Afer 1630 these changes of internal arrangement became very cvident in houses built forthe rich, Entrance ball grand open ai, passages and back stairs coalesced to form a penetaing network of circulation space which touched every major roomin the hoase- hold, The mos thorough-going application of this novel arrange iment was at Coeshil, Berkshire (1650-67) but by Sir Roger Prat fr his cousin (Fig), Here pasagestunnlled through the ‘entre length of the building on every loo. At the ends were back inthe centre, a grand stareae in a double-orey entrance hall which, despite its portentous treatment, was relly no mote ‘han a vestibule since the inhabitants ved their ves onthe other Side ofits wall. Every roo had a door i the pasage or into the hall. Tn his book of afchitecure Pratt maintained that the ornman way the middle through the whole length of the house” was to prevent “the offices ie. uty rooms] fom one molesting the other by continual passing through them’ and, in the rest ofthe hous, to censure that ‘ordinary servants may never publicly appear in passing to and io fr thelr occasions there Acconting him, thepasiage was for servants to keep them out ofeach other’ way and, more important sill to keep them ext of ‘he way of gentlemen an Indies There was nothing new inthis fasiiousnes, the novelty was in che conscious employment of achitecture to dispel it~ a mesure in part of the antago bemeen rich and poor in turbulent ces, but also an augur of ‘what was to render household life placid in years to come, Asto the main apartments they were tobe enfiladed int as long ‘vist of doors a could be obtained, The corridor Was not, there- fore, an exclusive means of access at thi time, but was insulled parallel to interconnecting rooms Even so, at Coleshill the cors- dor predominated to the extent of becoming a necesary route hough lange part ofthe house, more elegant plan, balancing the (wo types of circulation, was John Webb's Amesbury House, Wilshire (Fig. 10), where the central pasage served the whole howe, while al the roms, onthe principal lor atleast, were alo interconnected, From these plan it can be seen how the ineo- duction of the through-passage into a domestic architecture frst inscribed a deeper dvison between the upper and lwer ranks of society by maintaining direct sequential access for the privileged family circle while consigning servants oa limited teritory always adjacent to, but never within the house proper; where they were alwayson hand, but never prevent unless required, selects weer even more pervasive than this would suggest. Theme ao Q oe 4 architectural solution tothe servant problem (lhe problem oftheir presence being part of their servic, that i) had wider rari- cations With Prat similar caution can be detected in all maters relating to “inerferenc’, asf fom the architect's point of view all the occupants of a hovse, whatever their socal standing, had become nothing but a potential source of itation to eachother Ttistrue that he made the magnanimous gesture of putting doors rm at Coleshill, ak noted abowe, but then he dso explicit to obtain the vial efecto a reeding perspec tive through the whole house ewe some of ther ‘Ast the ser dors within, le th ale in divine one ght ter fom oe end of the Boe Yo the ther, amwerable wich Hehe rds be placed a ached, dhe vita ofthe whole wl eso much the nents Chath ' Accoringh the integration of household pace was now forthe 73 se of beauty its separation was for convenience ~ at oppositionhich has since become deeply engraved into theory, ceating two Astne standard of judgement fr two quite separate reales: on the one and, an extended concatenation of spaces to ater the eye (the mou easly deceived of the senses, according to conten porary writers) on the othe, caefl containment snd indivi compartments in which to preserve the self fom others This split between an architecture to lok Hough and a ache tecture to hide in cut an unbideable gap dividing commosity fiom delight, uy fom beau and function from form, OF ‘course in Raphael's work the dtinction between those aspects of architecture affecting daily intercourse and those concerned solely ‘with visual form can jus as easly be made, What isso diferent that in his work they were in general accord with one anther, wheres at Coleshill they began to pullin quite contrary diretons, ‘Why the innovation of independent access should have come about at alls ot yet cleat Perainly it indicated change of mood ‘concerning the desirability of exposure to company; whether ex- posure toallin the house, oo just some, was at this point a mater ‘of emphasis. Is sudden and purposeful application vo domes planning shows that ic did not carn up atthe end of long pre

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