Continuity and architecture

Continuity and architecture

Architectural design focuses primarily on discontinuity. In terms of process, it is applied to change states of the built environment in rather drastic and often quick ways, as with the design and construction of a new building on an empty plot or the refurbishment of a dilapidated room. Other changes, such as the deterioration of paint or plaster on a wall, are treated as continuous and hence a matter of use or maintenance rather than design. Maintenance bears an interesting relation to design: it's not just that it aims at keeping the building as close as possible to its design, the small steps it involves are considered trivial, even though they can change the building to a larger extent than people assume. Think, for example, of changes in the lighting fixtures in an office: they may render the relation with natural lighting to a degree that contradicts the intentions of the design. Nevertheless, if they're part of facilities management rather than refurbishment, they may go unnoticed and unconnected to design.

In terms of space, too, architectural design focuses on discontinuities, e.g. walls that interrupt space to create different spaces, locations for specific activities or with a particular character. Even within a single element, architecture focuses on discontinuities, e.g. those that concern morphology. Continuity in space (including on a building element) is considered boring - a non-issue. In effect, architecture is about the salient parts in our perception of the environments, the data that determine recognition and correlation of discrete objects (including spaces). One of the strongest examples of that is repetition, a favourite architectural device. This powerful combination of discontinuity and continuity results into patterns like a colonnade that are not merely recognisable but also demonstrations of what architectural design can achieve.