ABSTRACT
Gottfried Semper felt architecture's ethnographic taxonomy of basic elements numbered to four hearth, lithic mound, carpentry framework, and lightweight woven membranes for enclosure. A compositional manner that reappears periodically over centuries in significant, ideologically driven constructions likely has an underlying message. Screens occasionally complicate this component by placing a solid element at centre, which then must be actively managed. Yet even from raking perspectives, it is not traditionally beautiful but instead stern and aloof. The stair acknowledges us and the colonnade's scale commands a certain attention, yet it remains unclear what their puzzling combination conveys. The building maintains a contextually aloof posture and has only understated axial linkages within the immediate context. The predominant approach route is raking or tangential – not evolving sequentially along the building's axis. Their complex relations allow for diverse expressions. Much of the enigmatic mixture encountered in these façades derives from a regionally peculiar attitude.
