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This antithesis is one of the most important in architecture.

Space, despite its extent, is something whole, therefore, it includes identity and difference. The identity in space is its vertical dimension, directed from the earth to the heaven. Horizontality is formed as a difference between two dimensions, and there is the plane of the "earth". In the totality of synthesis, a vertical line and a horizontal plane form a synthetic three-dimensional space.

The general structure of the form in space, its otherness in space, is something that must be understood through verticality and horizontality. In the modern theory of architectural composition, there are three concepts between which one can see a dialectical connection. These are three-dimensional, frontal and deep compositions and three types of otherness of the form in space corresponding to them.

In a three-dimensional composition, as a rule, the vertical form dominates. This is an overall vertical form designed to be perceived around itself. The frontal form is generally horizontal and is perceived by one-dimensional movement along it or towards it. The deep form is presented in full force and combines both volume and frontness, at the same time being fundamentally new and irreducible to the opposite types of forms forming it.

Thus, let's correlate three types of compositional form with three types of spatiality:

1) Volume (verticality)

2) Frontality (horizontality)

3) Depth (three-dimensionality)

If drawing and visual art in general on a plane aim to create the illusion of three-dimensional space in two-dimensional, then architecture, by analogy, is creativity in the three-dimensional space of a four-dimensional space. Profundity, depth, interior (as the receptacle of the human body) is the fourth dimension of architectural existence, which fundamentally separates it from both painting and sculpture.

From the point of view of movement, the antithesis of vertical and horizontal is synthesized in the diagonal. Moving horizontally, we don't move vertically, and vice versa. And when we move diagonally, we move both horizontally and vertically. Motion in these planes is uniform, if the diagonal is inclined to the vertical plane at an angle of 45 degrees. By changing this angle, one can also change the ratio of the amount of movement vertically and horizontally.

Perhaps, feeling precisely this dynamic synthetics of the diagonal, K. Melnikov attached such importance to it: "One of the strongest dimensions of architecture is the diagonal.69" "My best tools were the symmetry outside of symmetry, the boundless elasticity of the diagonal, the full-fledged thinness of the triangle and the ponderable weight of the console.70"

Combining the vertical, horizontal with equal bases and the diagonal gives an isosceles right triangle. Two of these triangles can form a square, and twelve can form a cube, which can be considered as a model of a three-dimensional space built on horizontals and verticals. In the search for a synthesis of all three mutually orthogonal directions of space, we will again come to the diagonal – the diagonal of the cube, the movement along which is movement simultaneously in all directions. The diagonal form in architecture is the most powerful means for expressing the dynamics of space and creating a sense of its three-dimensionality. The horizontal and vertical do not have this property, because the movement is one-dimensional in them. A diagonal is a three-dimensional movement in three-dimensional space.

The antithesis of horizontality and verticality was most clearly manifested in the contrast of the general spatial structure of pagan and Christian churches.

When looking at the first ones, the significant predominance of the horizontal development of the form over the vertical one immediately stands out as their distinctive feature. Thus, the composition of an ancient Egyptian temple is built strictly along a longitudinal axis, on which the entrance pylons, peristyle, hypostyle, sanctuary and other rooms are strung in turn. It is interesting to note the overall impression produced by the interior space as the visitor moves deeper into the Egyptian temple. "Natural optical perspective always reduces objects, but here the perspective effect was exacerbated by the rhythmic reduction of distances along the main axis, and the viewer standing in front of the first pylon felt the boundless depth of the suite. The large square courtyard began as a suite of interior spaces. The courtyard was flooded with sunlight, as the colonnades stood only against the walls, and the central axis was marked by free-standing columns. But when the viewer passed through the second pylon, he found himself in a completely different environment. It was the so-called Great Hypostyle Hall. The brilliance of the sun was replaced by semi-darkness here, as only the central passage was illuminated through high-cut latticed windows, while the sides of the hall were devoid of natural light. <…> The further the viewer moved along the longitudinal axis of the Karnak temple, the smaller the pylons blocking the way became and the halls became narrower, and finally, in a distant and almost dark small sanctuary, the golden boat of Amon shone in the light of the flames.71