Architecture Re - configured

The question of what differentiates architecture and building has been raised many times in Architecture Theory, with various responses or explanations – usually under the precondition that architecture is something more. Space is the Machine makes a contribution to this discussion by elaborating some of the ways in which architecture becomes socially significant and how this differs from the vernacular. This discussion is herein continued, bringing in also a discussion of the formulation of spatial meaning as created through certain strategies of spatial configuration. In relation to the field of research, this paper constitutes a proposal of what this difference between architecture and the vernacular is, and how this is a difference in treatment of spatial configuration, making the findings within space syntax research pivotal for such an understanding. This is argued by use of a few socio-spatial figures commonly used in architectural design, that formulate positions and situations that are based on discrepancies between configurative relations of visibility and accessibility. It is finally suggested that it is the conscious and active use of these discrepancies that lies at the core of architectural design.