On the Spatial Typology of Arch Buildings

Abstract

The article considers the spatial typology of buiLdings- arches. The main message of the article is approbation of theoretical provisions on that example. The analysis is performed from several points of view:

• town-planning - a building-arch is investigated as an element of a large public space;


• compositional - subtraction technique - an aperture is cut off in an integral volume to the entire or incomplete height; addition technique - independent tower volumes are connected between each other by a third volume, i.e. a bridge-passage;


• typological - buildings of office-business centers and supermarkets, station complexes, technoparks, dwelling houses, and multifunctional constructions are studied;


• the functional-layout - functional content of the architectural form constituents, organization of external and internal communications are analyzed;


• psychological and sign-symbolic - the form of an arch as a unity in confrontation, a symbol of success and an invitation for cooperation;


• buildings-arches are classified depending on their typological potential as follows: gate, window, frame-portal; passage; filled arches, transitional type.

The notion «typological (spatial) potential» of an architectural object is introduced, it is formed on the basis of functional, constructive, and compositional-artistic potential.

All the author's messages are based on the results of analyzing the architecture of buildings-arches on the example of the foreign and domestic experience of recent decades. This describes buildings-arches of various types, both with openings of different shapes and with a filling that imitates them by reducing the visual mass of the central part. The author of the article emphasizes that fixing the transition state between the external and internal space, such objects appear in two main hypostases: as an individual multifunctional building and as an element of the architectural environment.

Identifying trends in the development of the architectural form of modern buildings-arches, the author points out that spatial structures as transition from a laconic form to complex, projection of plans and master plans on the facade, a new interpretation of arched spaces of the courtyards are relevant.

The article is illustrated with photographs, the vast majority of which are made by the author of the article.