Gottfried Semper’s Concept of Textile and Enclosure in Architecture

Abstract

Architectural Enclosure is basically understood to be responsible for dividing space and
enabling users in the architecture to understand the boundaries of the space. But it also has other meanings in terms of language, terminology, and construction techniques. Including implications
which communicate through the surface of the enclosure.
This article aims to find the original theoretical meaning, understand and explain the other
meanings that lie in the concept of architectural enclosure. By means of a study through a review of
the relevant literature and the writings of Gottfried Semper, who describes the architectural enclosure
as having its origin in textile and his concept has always been referenced by Western architectural
theorists. This article examines examples of a buildings influenced by the concept of Semper’s
architectural enclosure in order to explore the relationship between theory and architectural design.
This study indicates that Semper’s writings describe the enclosing as different from the
preceding architectural theory. He proposed the architectural enclosure as a separate element from
the structure, and its concept derives from the textiles covering the structure. When applying this
concept to the analysis of buildings in the next period, it was found that “Textile concepts” is
related in terms of construction and symbolic communication. This concept can be a framework
or tool used to analyze and explain phenomena occurring in later architecture.