How Tension Persists: Perceptual Integration and Resistance in Architectural Form

‘Tension’ is common in formal analysis, yet it has rarely been explained at the level of mechanism. One account attributes it to a form’s deviation from a reference form. This paper instead asks whether the integration, in perception, of the parts of a form can be completed. Tension is thereby understood as a state of judgement activity rather than a property of form. This paper defines tension as follows: the belonging tendency in perception seeks a perceptual grasp of the form as a whole, but this grasp remains unable to reach completion, and the work of integration therefore continues. What sustains this state is resistance, understood as the role of formal conditions in continually preventing the completion of integration. The belonging tendency continually encounters resistance; the work of integration is impeded but does not cease, and tension thereby persists. This impeded yet continuing operation takes different forms in perception; this paper identifies two situations that recur in the cases examined. Taking the Farnsworth House, CCTV Headquarters, and the High Court of Chandigarh as cases, this paper examines this mechanism through specific formal relations. The analysis employs perceptual description and is grounded in perceptual facts that can be identified by different observers, rather than in quantitative measurement.