Compactness as a relational spatial system: A genealogy of the Raumplan

Compactness in architecture is related to physical and material qualities and attributes. Throughout history, innumerable stereotomic and monolithic trials alike have been completed, made possible by subtraction operations or other manipulations of the built volume’s mass. Space, in these proposals, arises when matter is subtracted. This research proposes a different idea of compactness, based on the relational. It is a compactness that, far from material conditions, builds a complex architectural system that connects contiguous spatial units. These units are able to maintain their independence while being a part of the system. There is a balance between self-reference and connection. The system, which we have called the relational compact system, is developed following criteria of dimensional economy and maximum spatial density, within an abstract and regular perimeter. This perimeter contains the system and prevents its possible growth or decrease. The perimeter ensures that the system maintains its compactness. Inside, the relational set of units generates a compact spatial construct of great complexity, where these units are attached to each other, but tend to avoid the interstices between them. This set of units with differentiated qualifications is a support which can be adapted to different uses depending on convenience -in the search for the most convenient space for a certain action-, so that variable programming is allowed. The Thesis focuses on the field of housing -single family housing-, where the implementation of economic criteria is natural, even desirable. The inhabitant is understood as a productive subject of his own experience, with a growing capacity for the implementation of functions and appropriation of space. The productive subject attains a variety of capacities beginning from the technological advances that allow a restructuring of perception at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century; this was fundamental in determining the beginning of the research time frame. It should not be forgotten that, at the same time, other advances made possible the systematic environmental conditioning of the interiors and the progressive construction of thinness, necessary to achieve the desirable full contiguity of the units of the compact system. The Loosian Raumplan is understood as a stage of development of the relational compact system. Thus, the Thesis, in its evolution, builds a kind of genealogy of this Spatial Plan to this day. The research provides the tools that can be used for the construction of the system. Possible spatial consequences from using such tools were analyzed from various points of view; explanations on their functions and how they contribute to the self-reference of the units or to the construction of complex relationships between them were included. The compact system is an attractive field of research for the architect, given the strong intellectual and perceptual component of its construction. A graphic representation of the spatial and perceptual functioning of said system was made. It highlights the system’s ability to build a spatial unit based on relational diversity.