A piece of the Tao which we got taught in the first year of architecture college:
“Doors and windows are cut out of the walls of a house,
and the usefulness of the house
depends on the space where nothing exists”
In other words, or at least as was the emphasis placed at the Welsh School of Architecture; focus on the space, not the wall – while remembering the wall is what makes the space.
Petafloptimism 
not sure i’m with you on this one matt. isn’t the construction of space more a social practice rather than physical one? of course the boundaries and limits of space are often described (prescribed) by the wall, but the everyday engagement in and through space, together with the ideological superimposition of the architects ‘programme’ and societal ‘norms’ come together to ‘make’ the space.