hiller & hansen_social logic of space

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The social logic

of spaceBILL HILLIER

J U LIEN NE H A N SO N

Bartlett School of Architecture and PlanningUniversity College London

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CambridgeLondo n New York New RochelleMelbourne Sydney

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Introduction

For the most part, the design of an artefact- whether it is a bridge,a cup or a surgical instrument - has a certain logic to it. First,functional objectives must be achieved: materials or elementsmust be assembled into a form which works for a well-definedpurpose, or range of purposes. When this is done, a seconddimension may be added: that of style. By this we mean thatdecoration, embellishments., or even modifications of shape, cangive the artefact a significance over and above its practical uses,one belonging to the realm of cultural identity or 'meaniug'.Sometimes, of course, it is difficult to tell which aspects of anartefact belong in which realm. But there is never any doubt thatthe artefact does belong to two realms. Invariably, artefacts areboth functional an d meaningful. Insofar as they are the first, theyare of practical use; insofar as they are the second, they are ofprimarily social use, in that they become a means by whichcultural identities are known and perpetuated.

At first sight, this simple scheme might seem to apply pa rexcellence to that most omnipresent of artefacts, the building.Buildings are, after all, expected to function properly, and theirappearance is often held to be such an important aspect of cultureas to be a constant source of public controversy and debate. But itis not quite so simple. Buildings have a peculiar property that setsthem apart from other artefacts and complicates the relationbetween usefulness and social meaning. It is this. Buildings maybe comparable to other artefacts in that they assemble elementsinto a physical object with a cer tain form; but they are incomparable in that they also create and order the empty volumes of spaceresulting from that object into a pattern. It is· this ordering of spacethat is the purpose of building, not the physical object itself. Thephysical object is the means to the end. In this sense, buildings arenot what th ey seem. They appe ar to be physical artefacts, like anyother, and to follow the same type of logic. But this is illusory.Insofar as they are purposeful, buildings are not just objects, buttransformations of space through objects.

It is the fact of space that creates the special relation between

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