Two quotes by Gaston Bachelard on verticality and horizontality

“Verticality is ensured by the polarity of cellar and attic, the marks of which are so deep that, in a way, they open up two very different perspectives for a phenomenology of the imagination. Indeed, it is possible, almost without commentary, to oppose the rationality of the roof to the irrationality of the cellar”[1]


“But the height of city buildings is a purely exterior one. Elevators do away with the heroism of stair climbing so that there is no longer any virtue in living up near the sky. Home has become mere horizontality. The different rooms that compose living quarters jammed into one floor all lack one of the fundamental principles for distinguishing and classifying the values of intimacy”[2]


[1] Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 18.
[2] Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 27.

Agnes Martin, Untitled #9, 1999. acrylic and graphite on linen, 12 x 12 (30.5 x 30.5 cm).  

Adolf Loos, Josephine Baker House, Unbuilt, 1928