FORM AND ENCLOSURE = FORCLOSURE

The duality of the interior and the exterior has bedeviled Architects from just about day 1. As we have seen elsewhere in this study, LeCorbusier tried to solve this dilemma by urging us to consider a building like a bubble. As the interior space changes, so does the exterior.

I believe that a transparent drawing of any enclosure, building or object that we are designing promotes a fundamental linking and understanding of the interior and the exterior. A transparent drawing unmistakably shows whether the interior is tracking with the exterior. It allows the designer to simultaneously think about the exterior form and the interior form.  Or to put it another way, any transparent drawing worth it’s salt addressed form and enclosure as a matter of fact.

It seems like there should not be two words; form and enclosure. The fact that there are two words promotes this dualistic thinking. What if there was one word for the form and enclosure? Forclosure. Of course that is already a word, so what would be wrong to add another meaning? This word seems like it could work. So a designer might say something to the effect that the forclosure of the building works with the surrounding environment while permitting interesting light from above. And they would be able to make this statement without using the two separate words; form and enclosure.

Giedion, for one, has theorized about this dichotomy. His solution was what he called The Three Conceptions in Architecture. In his book Architecture and the Phenomena of Transition: The Three Space Conceptions in Architecture, he stated that 1) Egyptian and Greek architecture, which we continue to worship, were meant to principally be viewed from the outside; their buildings were objects in space. 2) Yet the success of a piece of architecture lies in well designed qualities of the interior; good architecture has to satisfy the needs of the people who use the building. 3) Therefore, architecture needs to respond simultaneously to mass and space.

And then of course there is the concept of Organic Architecture fostered by Wright, Sullivan, etc. Wright stated, “By organic architecture I mean an architecture that develops from within outward in harmony with the conditions of its being as distinguished from one that is applied from without.”

Certainly if you have a better word which combines the concepts of form and enclosure, please post.