ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical derivation of dimensional units and the adoption of explicit proportional relationships in the three spatial and fourth time dimensions. It argues that relational curiosity and looseness in the construction of a dimensional framework are key to making changes which fit appropriately to place and time. It shows how the invention and adoption of a dimensional framework for a building project has, in the past, been related to where and how the building was being made. It also describes how industrialisation divorces the making process from any relationship with the site during production and how it compromises fit thereafter.
It concludes by suggesting that gaps between fragments and looseness of fit at the fabric scale are necessary both to accommodate changing occupation and fabric adjustment, over time, and also to facilitate the assemblage of architectural order through the scales, from the bottom up, in each timely reincarnation.
