Robin Evans delivers a seminal and stunningly beautiful argument in ‘Figures, Doors and Passages’ that is based on comparing paintings and architectural plans to gain insights into the relation between spatial organisation and social arrangements and formations. He distinguished between the Italian medieval matrix of connected spaces and a social context based on closeness, carnality and accidental social encounter and the British corridor and cellular room model and a social context based on privacy, distance and segregation. He completes his accomplished discourse with the question why the corridor model is today still the predominant spatial organisation and questions its relevance vis-à-vis today’s prevailing social pattern.
Evans, R. 1997. Translations from Drawings to Buildings and Other Essays. London: Architectural Association Publications.