ABSTRACT
In the slateworkers cottage, called Llainfadyn, the purpose of the structure of the building is to organise a portion of space, identifying it as a place for dwelling. Structure and space are in symbiosis – a mutually effective relationship. Architecture is always a symbiosis of space and structure. The way ancient Greek architects evolved indoor theatric places is a good illustration of how spatial organisation can conflict with structural and how such conflict can be resolved by compromises of different types in both. Some architects have tried to separate structural order from spatial organisation and place-making. Below is a small house on Long Island, New York, designed by the architects Kocher and Frey and built in 1935. The space of a cave is largely free from the discipline of structure. Excavated from solid matter, which retains its stability through its integrity, the space of a cave is amorphous, neither submissive to nor ignoring the order suggested by constructed structure.
