Towards an understanding of shapes and types in architecture

Architects deal with shapes all the time in a variety of ways. Shapes inarchitectural practice are understood as an interesting blend of abstract geometri-cal forms and their possible or actual material realisations. These entities can evenbe identified with a real place, a place where people live, which then acquires thismixed nature as well. Thus, architectural shapes and places are not abstract entitiesnor can be confused with material realisations (the constructed objects) since hu-mans perceive them well beyond their material aspects: enclosed and open placesare perceived via their material as well as their idealised forms. In this paper wemake some initial step in the study of this characteristic of architecture and its un-derstanding of shapes and places. In particular, we focus on the perspective thatarchitectural types offer to read shapes.