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Title PageTitle PageTitle PageTitle Page
Crystalline: A quest in the realms of Crystalline: A quest in the realms of Crystalline: A quest in the realms of Crystalline: A quest in the realms of
structure, skin and spacestructure, skin and spacestructure, skin and spacestructure, skin and space
The physical and meta-physical aspects of transparency, theories,
interpretations and re-interpretations.
Stephen Serracino Inglott
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Engineering and Architecture (Honours)
Department of Architecture and Urban Design
Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering
University of Malta
June 2002
iii
AckAckAckAcknowledgmentsnowledgmentsnowledgmentsnowledgments
The writing of a dissertation can be a lonely and isolating experience, yet it is obviously
not possible without the personal and practical support of numerous people. Thus my
sincere gratitude goes to my parents, all my friends, and my companions.
My research for this dissertation was made more efficient but also much more extensive
through the use of several resources, of which e-mail communication was essential. Thus
I gladly express my gratitude to Prof. John Stuart of Florida International University and
Prof. Jennifer Taylor of Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Built
Environment and Engineering, who offered their support and especially for performing
for me a special search of their as-yet-unreleased texts written on the subject. On the
other hand, most of my work still had to rely on the printed page. Thus I am thankful for
having received much assistance from numerous librarians, especially the director of the
library at the Institut du Verre in Paris, Mme. Martine Braconne, and her assistants.
Finally, this dissertation would not have been possible without the expert guidance of my
esteemed advisor, Prof. Denis De Lucca not only was he readily available for me, as he
so generously is for all of his students, but he always read and responded to the drafts of
each chapter of my work more quickly than I could have hoped while his oral and written
comments are always extremely perceptive, helpful, and appropriate. Of course, despite
all the assistance provided by Prof. De Lucca and others, I alone remain responsible for
the content of the following, including any errors or omissions which may unwittingly
remain.
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PrefacePrefacePrefacePreface
The interest in the various architectural properties of glass within the continuing modern
tradition appears as a significant part of the evolution of world architecture as it enters the
twenty-first century. Explorations of the current and past trends in the use of glass in
architecture, form but a part of the age-old quest for transparency and immateriality as
design tools without overlooking their powerful symbolism.
This dissertation is concerned with the physical and meta-physical properties of the use
(and the non-use) of glass in architecture, in order to produce the desired attribute to the
space, be it an environmental solution or a symbolic metaphor.
Throughout history Western architecture principally has been characterized by mass. It
represented stability and protection. Culture, climate, and the availability of materials,
determined the weight and permanence of the structure – yet the drive to overcome mass
and gravity was there, and as knowledge of construction advanced in the Greek Classical
period columns became lighter and moved apart. In the early Christian era a further
dimension was added. The Church taught of the Celestial City of the Kingdom to come
and emperors, such as Justinian of the 6th century A.D., looked to create such a heaven on
earth, that is, they sought to deny the earthly reality and realize a spiritual, other worldly
place. There was a conscious effort to dematerialize architecture, here through the
suppression of the legibility of the tectonics of structure, through light, and dissolving all
the surfaces by undercutting and shimmering mosaics.1
The dematerialization of architecture for spiritually symbolic reasons, continued in the
Gothic period, notably through the Scholastics’ revival of the Greek metaphysics of light.
Knowledge of construction had developed to the point where walls no longer needed to
be disguised behind mosaics, but could actually be replaced by glowing panels of light
representing purity and the presence of that which is holy. Thus, the dematerialization of
1 Hagia Sophia was one such experiment
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architecture engaged both structure and surface, and was physical, spiritual and
symbolic. This led to an increased interest in the development of an astonishing new
material, glass; and to a greater exploitation of the newly discovered potentials by
architects, visionaries, writers and urban planners.
Transparency is the vital property that gives glass the importance from which it benefits
today. The evolution of glass also saw in architecture the development of the word
‘Transparency’ in theoretic terms. Transparency has come to signify more than what is
physically non-opaque or able to allow free movement of light through it. The word
transparency has taken its role in the description of architecture form, as a tool in design,
and as an objective method for analyzing urban and architectural layouts.
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Abstract and MethodologyAbstract and MethodologyAbstract and MethodologyAbstract and Methodology
Throughout the first two chapters I will pursue a Hegelian History and Theory approach2,
where the objective is to find the ‘spirit of the age’ in the use of glass architecture. An
analysis of the influence of the use of glass in buildings and the motives of its
employment throughout Paris shows the fruition of a general outcry for the use of
transparent materials. Chapter Three is be a theorized study where influential buildings
and theories will be analyzed with the use of interdisciplinary theories. An explanation of
Colin Rowe’s and Robert Sluztky’s Transparency introduces the phenomenal concept
which will be referred to through the rest of the dissertation. The writings of Scheerbart
and the works of Taut pave the way to a universal style in which glass plays an vital role.
Critiques of Chareau’s Maison de Verre in Paris are studied and used through an
interpretation of its architecture, in view of the theories discussed earlier. Towards the
end of the chapter, Jean Nouvel’s is seen as an evolution of modernist thoughts. His
fascination with transparent forms is justified and in itself justifies a wider use of glass.
Glass architecture in Malta is in practical terms non-existent. Throughout Chapter Four
three baroque building examples from the local context are examined for a phenomenal
transparency, a modernist theory inspired by the application of transparent glass and
cubist lines of thought. The last chapter is a look ahead, into what we can expect from
the glass industry and an appraisal of how this can be used to our advantage locally.
2 Hegelian History and Theory approach: Influenced by the ideas of the nineteenth century philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, the Hegelian tradition pervades a large part of architectural history. Some of its most pertinent traits include ideas of progress, the progress being achieved by individual architects in particular
countries, and that this architecture represents a ‘spirit of the age’ or zeitgeist that pervades a particular historical period.
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Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of Contents
TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................................................................... I
DEDICATION.................................................................................................................................................II
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................................III
PREFACE .....................................................................................................................................................IV
ABSTRACT AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................VII
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................................................IX
1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................2
1.0 The use of glass in architecture.........................................................................................................2 1.0.1 Crystalline ....................................................................................................................................2 1.0.2 Functions of Glass throughout History ........................................................................................3 1.0.3 Technology and the increase in use of glass ................................................................................7
1.1 Glass as structure and skin ...............................................................................................................9
1.2 Dissertation Structure .......................................................................................................................9
2 ARCHITECTURAL THEORIES RELATING TO GLASS.............................................................12
2.0 Visionaries and Architectural Theories ......................................................................................... 12 2.0.1 Architectural Treatises ............................................................................................................... 12 2.0.2 The works of the visionaries ...................................................................................................... 13 2.0.3 The works of the architects ........................................................................................................ 18
2.1 Modernist Theories and the use of Glass ....................................................................................... 19
3 ARCHITECTURAL GLASS THEORIES AND THEIR EVOLUTION..........................................22
3.0 Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky – Transparency ......................................................................... 22 3.0.1 Literature Review....................................................................................................................... 22 3.0.2 Analogies to painting ................................................................................................................. 23 3.0.3 Ambiguously bounded spaces.................................................................................................... 24
3.1 Paul Scheerbart and Bruno Taut ................................................................................................... 26 3.1.1 Paul Scheerbart as a novelist...................................................................................................... 26
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3.1.2 Opposing literal Transparency................................................................................................... 28 3.1.3 (Mis)Interpreting Scheerbart’s Glass Architecture .................................................................... 30 3.1.4 Bruno Taut as Scheerbart’s medium.......................................................................................... 32
3.2 Maison de Verre ............................................................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 A step ahead............................................................................................................................... 36 3.2.2 Julien Lepage - Details and perpetual transition. ....................................................................... 38 3.2.3 Ambiguous spaces, glass and transparency ............................................................................... 40
3.3 Jean Nouvel as an addendum to Modernism ................................................................................ 44 3.3.1 The morality of glass ................................................................................................................. 44 3.3.2 Space and form .......................................................................................................................... 46 3.3.3 Transparency within the Cartier Foundation ............................................................................. 47 3.3.4 The properties of glass generally exploited by Nouvel.............................................................. 50
4 TRANSPARENCY IN MALTESE ARCHITECTURE ....................................................................52
4.0 Applying transparency retroactively ............................................................................................. 52
4.1 Phenomenal Transparency in Maltese architecture ..................................................................... 53 4.1.1 Attard Parish Church.................................................................................................................. 53
4.1.1.1 Super-impostion of use and space.......................................................................................... 55 4.1.1.2 The crossing ........................................................................................................................... 57
4.1.2 St.John’s Co-cathedral, Valletta................................................................................................. 59 4.1.2.1 Standardized planning............................................................................................................ 60 4.1.2.2 The annexes and loggias in axial harmony............................................................................ 62 4.1.2.3 Façade transparency............................................................................................................... 64
4.1.3 Vilhena Palace, Mdina ............................................................................................................... 67 4.1.3.1 The palace’s three roles.......................................................................................................... 68 4.1.3.2 The central courtyard ............................................................................................................. 70 4.1.3.3 Planning Geometry ................................................................................................................ 71
4.2 Literal Transparency in Maltese architecture .............................................................................. 73
4.3 Local Current Trends in Glass architecture ................................................................................. 73
5 SELECTING THE BEST USE FOR ACHIEVING TRANSPARENCY .......................................76
5.0 Local Situation ................................................................................................................................. 76
5.1 New Proposals. ................................................................................................................................. 76 5.1.1 Glass-skin developments ........................................................................................................... 77 5.1.2 Intelligent Glass Facades ........................................................................................................... 78
6.0 Summary Statement .............................................................................................................................. 82
BILBIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................................................84
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List of FiguresList of FiguresList of FiguresList of Figures
Figure 1 - Molecular Structure of glass and crystal .........................................................................................2 Figure 2 – Structural Glass used to skin the pyramids at the Louvre Museum in Paris ..................................8 Figure 3 - A poster used for the promotion of the phalanstery..................................................................... 14 Figure 4 – A poster promoting Godin’s Familistere...................................................................................... 15 Figure 5 – The internal courtyard of a Familistere ........................................................................................ 16 Figure 6 – A sketch of the house in glass: Jean Gauthier 1899 ..................................................................... 17 Figure 7 ‘The Glass Skyscraper’ (1920-21)................................................................................................... 20 Figure 8 – Paul Scheerbart............................................................................................................................. 28 Figure 9 - Elevation of Taut's Cologne Glass Pavilion.................................................................................. 32 Figure 10 - Scaled Model of the Maison de Verre, Paris............................................................................... 35 Figure 11 - Interior view of a model of the Maison de Verre........................................................................ 36 Figure 12 - Floor Plan dynamism inside the Maison de Verre...................................................................... 37 Figure 13 - Sliding door detail - Maison de Verre......................................................................................... 38 Figure 14 - The interior details, all carefully designed .................................................................................. 39 Figure 15 – The plans of the Maison de Verre show a persistent dynamism. Room spaces and circulation
passages intersect, allowing for transparency. The layout is thus clearly ambiguous. .......................... 41 Figure 16 – The sketch of a section through the Maison de Verre show an interplay of volumes and voids
throughout the house. Tranparency exists not only on plan but in all three dimensions. ...................... 42 Figure 17 - Glass panels at the Cartier Foundation - Jean Nouvel ............................................................... 45 Figure 18 - The Cartier Foundation, merged in between the trees ................................................................ 48 Figure 19 - A section through the Cartier Foundation................................................................................... 49 Figure 20 - The western fronts of Dingli's churches. From top: Attard, Birkirkara, and Naxxar.
Photo Courtsey: J. A. Tonna .................................................................................................................. 54 Figure 21 – Plan showing overlapping of space inside the Attard Parish church.......................................... 56 Figure 22 - Section through the Attard parish church at the crossing............................................................ 58 Figure 23 - Labeled plan of St.John's Cathedral............................................................................................ 59 Figure 24 - Photograph showing the extent of the nave intersected by the chapels ...................................... 61 Figure 25 - The long nave is seen to be repetitively intersected by perpendicular axes from each chapel to
the one facing it. ..................................................................................................................................... 62 Figure 26 - Respesentation of the numner or perpendicular axes inside the cathedral and its annexes ........ 63 Figure 27 - St. John's Cathedral - Facade and Annexes................................................................................. 64 Figure 28 - Vilhena palace from St.Publius Square (Photo courtsey: D. De Lucca)..................................... 67 Figure 29 - Plans of Vilhena Palace (Courtsey: D. De Lucca) ...................................................................... 69 Figure 30 – The Facade of the Vilhena Palace .............................................................................................. 70 Figure 31 - Photos showing central courtyard at the Vilhena Palace ............................................................ 71 Figure 32 - The plan shows the two main grid patterns used to solve the plans due to the restrictions
encountered by Mondion. ...................................................................................................................... 72
2
1 Introduction1 Introduction1 Introduction1 Introduction
1.0 The use of glass in architecture
1.0.1 Crystalline
Glass, the oldest man-made material, has a history going back more than seven thousand
years. It is a product of fusion with silicon dioxide (sand) as its main constituent, and has
since ancient days been elevated due to its singular properties.
Crystal is often compared to glass in having similar properties. This relates to the
reflective and sparkling effects of the two materials, but when looking at this relation
from the physicist’s point of view, it becomes inappropriate. The molecular structure of a
crystal is regular whereas that of glass is irregular; the irregularity being the property that
makes glass transparent; while a clear crystal might be translucent at best.3
Figure 1 - Molecular Structure of glass and crystal
3 Heinz W. Krewinkel, Glass in Buildings: Material, Structure and Detail, 1998 Birkhauser, pg7
Architectural glass.
3
My comparison in this dissertation goes beyond the literal in which I attempt to infuse
order in a very irregular scatter of theories and literature treating the theme of glass and
transparency in architecture, the related functions and phenomenological aspects4, in a
way, figuratively turning glass into a more ordered crystal.
1.0.2 Functions of Glass throughout History
The main factor to which much of the material’s (glass) success is owed, is its
transparency. A transparency which is complemented with a smooth surface, strength and
durability. A variable transparency which can interchange between translucence or
complete reflection of light, refraction effects and clear transmission of light.
It is fascinating how the functions of glass have been continually changing since its
discovery. It took two thousand years for the idea that glass could be used for windows to
emerge and not merely for pots and containers.5 The environment and the necessities
brought about by it have been a source of inspiration for the first glassmakers to create
the transparent enclosures. This could be achieved when the making of flat glass was
understood and easily utilized.
In the present times glass in buildings serves many changing functions whereas glass was
built into the theoretical basis of the Modern Movement at its outset, which we can still
see its major influences today.
Throughout the ages the main aspect of the functions of glass in architecture have
gradually changed. Below I have outlined the changing concepts and glass functions in
various stages in time since its conception.
4 Colin Rowe’s and Robert Slutzky’s work on phenomenal transparency in buildings treats the aspect of transparency, which will be referred to in depth in the following chapters. 5 Michael Wiggongton, Glass in Architecture, Phaidon, pg6, 1996. Introduction.
4
Egypt 1500
BC
Egypt has provided the oldest glass found
to date in the form of glass beads and vessels. Glass was used in buildings in the
form of mosaics since the early times.
Phoenician city
of Sidon
100
B.C.
Invention of the blowing iron, production
of transparent glass became feasible with
the use of an iron tube 1 to 1.5 m long
with a 10mm bore
Roman Period The Romans used glass in glazing
windows in panes of sizes even up to one
metre squared, possibly cast.
Rome 337 A.D.
Constantine’s church of Saint Paul used glass as an illuminated, painted surface.
Saone and
Rhine
Provinces
Glass industries flourished manned by
Jewish, Syrian and Alexandrian
craftsmen, with famous factories in
Cologne and Trier. In the latter the Latin
name Glesum gave glass its present name.
German
invasion and
collapse of
Roman Empire
400
A.D. to
600
A.D.
The centres of glass making in the Rhine
and Rhone valleys remained, but many
fled to the Po Valley and Liguria. German
invaders broke the easterners monopoly in around 600 AD
Venetian Glass Industry.
By 1000
A.D.
Venetians were establishing their techniques for the bullions produced by
spinning
Northern
Europe
Start of the Gothic Age with the use of
both spinning and cylinder method to satisfy the demands of the church
Gothic
Cathedrals
From
the 12th
century
A.D.
The development of the Gothic church
structure is one of the most important architectural stories, which brought about
the creation of the glass wall. The large
openings suggest the implicit idea of
5
‘frame’ in Gothic architecture. The role of
glass thus became that of a membrane to keep the weather out. In southern Europe,
glazed openings where not essential, but in northern Europe, protection from the
sun was replaced by the thirst for light,
and protection from rain. Later, it developed as a form of pictorial
representation. Here, glass found its
natural place in the architectonic order.
English secular inheritance
16th
Century Far away from the influence of the Renaissance taking place in the south of
Europe, glass in English Elisabethan
architecture was used to represent the
wealthy and successful in an ostentatious
way. A representative aphorism is ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall’ 6.
Renaissance in
Northern
Europe
From
the end
of the
16th
Century
When Italian Renaissance hit northern
Europe, a radical change encompassed
architectural thinking, which reflected in a
change in the building form. The
‘architectonics and deriving of form’7
which characterized the Gothic, English
Elizabethan and Jacobean and Dutch
architecture, gave way to a rationalization
of the quality of materials, which were
given more importance than to their role in the elevation. Although glass was
therefore used less in the design of
buildings, the advance of technology made it available to the general public and
more houses were able to incorporate glass according to differing needs: light,
view and protection.
Improvement
of techniques
From
the 17th century
The spread of glass put a requirement of
quality in the demands of the clientele with a taste for large panes of glass. A
technique was developed in about 1670,
6 Hardwick Hall (1590-7) by Robert Smythson, is a prime example of the extensive use of glass in England towards the end of the 16
th century. Its is situated near Mansfield on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire
border.
7 Architectonics, simply put is the art of constructing systems.
6
and perfected by Bernard Perrot in the
process for polishing glass, which he published in the French Academie des
Sciences. The skills needed to make glass where completely revolutionized. Louis
XIV made wonderful use of of the new
material in Versailles 8. 18
th century
Europe brought about large advances in
the manufacture of glass. However the
architecture was still dominated by the
formal order of the Renaissance, giving
importance to windows in elevations.
Glass
Conservatories
From
the 18th
century
Brought about by Dutch experimentation
with sloping glass, conservatories
developed internationally due to a
common interest in horticulture. In the 19th century, Loudon grew concerned with
the science of conservatories. He looked for a new architecture which ‘may be
beautiful without exhibiting any orders of
the Grecian or Gothic’. Loudon designed
and built the first stressed skin structure
whereby the glass was giving stability to the iron framework.
Commercial
exposition
centres and stations.
19th
century
Paxton’s contribution9 was primarily in
the glazing system, its construction
methods and ingenious use of glass. This building was called a monster by Pugin,
but construction went on. Konras
Washmann gave the building historical importance when he wrote that the
building was ‘a symbol of the new spirit of the times.’ More structures where later
built in an effort to produce huge halls,
including stations and shopping galleries.
8 Versailles; built by a powerful monarch, here unlike at Hardwick, it is subordinate to the discipline of ordering of the Italian Renaissance, but still with extensive use of glass. Norberg-Schulz has described Versailles as a glass house, linking the transparent structures of the Gothic Age to the great iron and glass
buildings of the nineteenth century. 9 Joseph Paxton, known for his design of the Crystal Palace in 1851, Hyde Park, London, acclaimed to be
one of the first ‘modern’ buildings, whose concept evolved on the use of glass.
7
Frame and
Skin
19th
century
The same thinking that brought about the
Gothic glass wall opened up the façade into a frame opening, made of metal. This
type of structure was more widely used in industrial buildings at first but was later
utilized for schools and office blocks.
1.0.3 Technology and the increase in use of glass
The literary bibliography of glass is very small and its significant works can be kept
without difficulty in a personal library, but the technical literature produced every year is
vast. This shows how technology is quickly shaping and re-shaping the use of glass in
architecture and many new techniques and sciences are developed every year, which shed
their influence on architecture and the use of glass. This is complemented by the view
that architecture is very much derived from the state of the technology. We have read
from Vitruvius to Violet-le-Duc how architecture is subject to the purpose and material,
and that our technology of today is an inheritance of a long tradition. It thus seems
appropriate to discuss the evolution of the use of glass in architecture throughout the
various stages in history. It will be shown how both the literal and phenomenal properties
of glass have shaped and created architecture.
The trend of glass architecture in construction terms is in the reduction of a supporting
structure. For example, glass roofs with sag rods minimize the need for steel framing and
increase the transparency. The same can be said for facades. Cable lattice designs and
mechanical systems render possible; the delicate glass architecture designed in the
present day. Glass has a high compressive strength but low tensile strength (30–90 N/mm
squared), but the risk of brittle fracture can be compensated with the use of laminated
glass giving adequate strength after fracture. Judging from the vast amount of material
produced each year, the experimentation with the use of glass is by no means exhausted.
Now more than ever, it requires the exchange of technological data between all those
involved, including architects.
8
Figure 2 – Structural Glass used to skin the pyramids at the Louvre Museum in Paris
Michael Wiggington describes our present times as the fourth age of glass.10 The age
follows the earlier ones of the Gothics, the 18th century conservatory builders and the
Scheerbartian visions of the 1920's including other architects and designers. He states
that: “the fourth age is going to be easily the finest because we can actually use the glass
now to control the climate and transparency. Buildings will be incredibly lively in the
future, and all because of this fantastic material.”
10 Futurama, Periodical, Interview with Michael Wiggington by Alan Saunders, 2000
9
1.1 Glass as structure and skin
Developing techniques of fixing glass and exploiting its structural capacity allow the
removal of structural elements from the plane. The potential for architectural expression
is enormous, since until recently the transparent surface was dominated by columns or
glazing bars needed to hold the glass in place.
Peter Rice and Hugh Dutton 11 promote the idea that the flimsiest steel or aluminium
profiles, and even glass stiffening fins, detract from the pure planar nature of the glass
surface, giving it a relief standing out from the skin, the glass planes. Without these
structural component a new structural device is created, this being a pure planar surface
of transparent, reflective or luminous glass.
1.2 Dissertation Structure
Up till now, I have outlined the various stages of thought brought about by glass as a
material in architecture, throughout the ages, with the exception of the modern
movement. The latter will be discussed in Chapter 2, due to its importance and
implications towards today’s architecture due to the visionaries, utopists and architectural
theorists of its time.
An analysis of a number of important theories will follow from which the essence will be
extracted and re-used throughout the rest of the dissertation. From the utopic visions of
Paul Scheerbart, to a Phenomenal transparency idealized by Colin Rowe, all have given
their part in the making of architectural history.
I will therefore attempt to identify and analyze local buildings which show a major aspect
of one or a number of the theories detailed. I will venture to explore literal and
11 Peter Rice and Hugh Dutton, Structural Glass, 2
nd Edition, Champman and Hall 1997. Here a discussion
on the glass structures of the Serres Project at La Villette, Paris is found.
10
phenomenological transparency through our contemporary times, but more importantly
within our vast historic heritage in architecture.
Finally after having studied the local scene in the use of glass and the achievement of
transparency in both its definitions, a search for the ways which are most appropriate to
Maltese architecture in its historical, climatic and market terms, with a look towards the
future, will be carried out.
12
2222 Architectural Theories relating to GlassArchitectural Theories relating to GlassArchitectural Theories relating to GlassArchitectural Theories relating to Glass
2.0 Visionaries and Architectural Theories
Glass was the cause of numerous thoughts and reflections during a century and a half
under scrutiny by the social reformers and by the architects. In the first part I have
portrayed writings with a visionary content, in the second part is an analysis of the works
and writings of architects who are considered as avant-garde, with enlightening methods
and techniques in the use of glass, while in the third part the works and influences
throughout the beginnings of the Modern Movement are dealt with.
2.0.1 Architectural Treatises
If the architectural treatises of the 17th century, like Blondel12 or Bullet13 are all-time
favorites of architectural libraries, the unavoidable work is “Elements and theories of
architecture” of Julien Gaudet14 inside which he details the elements of projects and their
composition according to the types of buildings, of which he takes a remarkable choice.
Gaudet is not worried about the type of glass used, but talks in great length on the
question of openings, shading devices, and of clean illumination. The architectural treaty
12 Francois Blondel and Louis Savot. L’architecture francaise des batiments particuliers, 1685. The
Academy of Architecture, one of the last, was founded on the death of the reigning premiere architect du Roi, Louis Le Vau, in 1671, and its director was the engineer Francois Blondel who become the king’s ex-officio advisor. (Rykert, The First Moderns)
13 Pierre Bullet. L’architecture pratique. 1
st ed, 1691
14 Julien Gaudet, Professor of Theory at the EBA from 1894 to 1908, Book: Julien Gaudet. “Elements and
theories of architecture” Paris: Librarie de la construction Moderne, 1901-1904, 2nd edition (4 volumes).
Gaudet doesn’t consider it as a treatise but it has been the most influential architecture course taught in France at the turn of the century. The author also collaborated with Garnier on the Paris Opera.
13
of Louis Cloquet15 details also the aesthetic implications of good lighting and orientation,
how to measure solar radiation and the new glass products which would improve natural
lighting with the use of glass as the only material on the skin of a building.
2.0.2 The works of the visionaries
As a considerable amount of my research was done in Paris16, I ventured to describe the
works of Parisian visionaries in terms of new and effective use of glass inside this same
city, which have ultimately been of weight on the development of glass architecture in
general. If Charles Fourier was the first to associate the social reforms to architecture and
to glass, it was his follower, Victor Considerant (1808-1893), an old student of the Ecole
Polytechnique who described it.
Considerant describes the Phalanstery,17 a new type of social housing which was aimed
not only towards the proletariat but to all men in general. He looks at the unhygienic state
of the urban environment and considers a change in the building types around him. The
closed windows and doors are personified into objects with a wish to breathe, a wish
which cannot be granted due to the extreme level of pollution in the air, and they
therefore choke in a workshop of putrefaction18. It is interesting to note that in the year
15 Louis Cloquet. Trate d’Architecture. Paris, Liege: Beranger, 1898-1901 2nd edition 1901-03 in 5
volumes. In this second edition, the tone becomes more lyrical and Cloquet names his wishes for an authentic glass architecture.
16 Paris, and French architectural literature was chosen as one of the prime sources of information and
references for this dissertation, since this city was to a large extent the most influencial in Europe in
bringing about the changes in architectural thinking throughout the last two centuries and its wide-ranging use of glass as a material for innovation. Through-out the course of this study I have visited Paris, its authoritative buildings in glass , and researched in its libraries and institutes.
17 Victor Considerant, Description d’un phalanstere et considerations sure l’architectonique. Paris,
Librarie societaire, 1840. A building type idealized by Fourier, which would house 1620 people and be self
sufficient and well intergrated into the social context. 18 Considerant names the bad state of the air, ground, and lack of light in Paris as the breeding ground of
diseases and epidemics.
14
1832 cholera caused 18,400 deaths in Paris alone, the same amount cancer kills today in
the same city in one year.
Figure 3 - A poster used for the promotion of the phalanstery
The Phalanstery is proposed as the right architecture which would solve the communities’
problems of cleanliness. A rue-galerie covered in glass is planned surrounding the
phalanstery complex, which would create a micro-climate and set an agreeable
temperature even on the streets immediately around the building complex, allowing for a
greater amount of light to illuminate the rooms through large windows. He thus proposes
light and warm temperature through the use of glass as a medium to overcome disease.
The visions of Fourier and Considerant have nourished a good part of architectural
thought in the nineteenth century, and was concretized in a number of hospitals and
luxurious hotels. But the work which was the most faithful to its spirit and description,
was the Familistere19 built by Jean-Baptiste Godin at Guise on which work started in
1859. This building served with the social spirit established by Fourier for more than a
century. The Palais sociale consisted of three buildings of three stories each built around
a central courtyard measuring 40 x 20 m, covered with a glass clad metal structure. Inside
the Familistere lived 1200 to 1500 people.
Godin emphasizes that light and its penetration into a building is a measure of societies’
progress in moral terms. This premise comes from the statement that a clear
19 Jean-Baptisite Godin, Solutions socials, Paris, Le Chevalier et Guillaumin. Bruxelles, Office de
publicite, 1871
15
understanding and solutions to moral problems can only be found with the use of light.
Describing the dark houses of Paris of the time, he speaks of houses without any
openings for light and compares it to an inhibited society, in whose darkness lurk the
dangers of disease and crime.
Figure 4 – A poster promoting Godin’s Familistere
Clarity and ordered spaces are the primary conditions needed for hygiene and good
health.20 In the Familistere one can appreciate the large openings provided for light
penetration and the ventilation system used to airiate the internal courtyard, regulating the
temperature in both summer and winter. This building was the first to apply these
principles and adopt the use of glass in internal courtyard residences. Not only that, but
20 Jean-Baptisite Godin, Solutions socials. This line shows Godin’s pre-modernist thoughts towards the
endorsement of the concept of material purity.
16
here, a clear allusion to the moral values implied by the use of glass is first noted, brought
about by its transparency.
Figure 5 – The internal courtyard of a Familistere
Godin thus succeeded in building a small new city whose buildings encompassed glass in
both its physical and the more ambiguous moral ones. On the other hand Hector Horeau
supported a change in Paris’s boulevards, and reform of the urban fabric, rather than the
building of new cities.21 Horeau is more inspired by the need for hygiene and progress
than by and social or political reform. He considers the effects of the urban landscape of
the forces of nature, namely the wind, rain, snow, and the sun; and lists the disadvantages
provided to the well functioning of everyday life. He also looks at the trees which are
green only a few months a year. The dangers of crossing the street and the dirt found in
them are also a point which he bears in mind. Similarly to Godin, Horeau finds his
solution in a metal frame structure clad in glass covering this time the whole boulevard.
He outlines the various advantages one would gain with this intervention including,
protection from the weather, agreeable temperatures, and the many services which he
would include, such as underground crossings and ventilated uriniors.
21 Hector Horeau, Supplement aux Cahiers de la recherché architecturale no.3. Paris 1979. His original
text was written between the years 1865 and 1868; proposing a covering for the main boulevards in Paris.
17
The same principles of hygiene and progress, stimulated the theoretical design of a glass
house22 by Jules Henrivaux. Jean Gauthier made a sketch showing this glass house in
1899 (see Fig.) Henrivaux puts forward a house in an urban context build almost entirely
of glass in grillages which he fabricated at the Manufacture de Saint-Gobaine, of which
he was a director. This design was important for its use of a buffering space in between
the inside and outside, in order to keep out the excess heat and cold.
Figure 6 – A sketch of the house in glass: Jean Gauthier 1899
22 Jules Henrivaux, La Revue technique, issue of 25/6/1900.
18
2.0.3 The works of the architects
Has the use of glass changed the overall architectural composition? And how? Charles
Boileau (1837-1914) is the first to have asked this question and to attempt an answer. A
self-thought architect, he inherited the construction of the Bon Marche from his father’s
architectural practice. In an article published in 1876 in French, entitled “Ornament
eradicated with glass”, he argues about the insensitivity of his contemporaries about the
use of ornament in iron and glass buildings.23 Boileau realizes that a different point of
view must be adopted in order to design significant architecture with these new materials.
Architects of the time were trained to apply decorations over flat stone surfaces, in the
classical orders, and baroque forms, whereas the increased use of structural iron and glass
cladding could not sustain such types of decoration. On the other hand, the beauty inside
these new buildings, shall be found paradoxically inside their spirit to allow light through
its envelope, and in the retaining of a pleasant internal environment. He thus
distinguishes between ornamentation and being true to the material, concepts which
now clearly cannot be mixed. After a long study on the thesis and anti-thesis of the
rationalists versus the traditionalists he comes out with the presumption that architecture,
like the arts, is composed of its apparent qualities, and not of the intrinsic qualities of the
materials. The latter play an important role in influencing the architectural form, but it is
this apparent truth, that which is presented to the eye, as the main constituent in
architecture.
This comes out as a reaction to the experimentation and the difficulty and
inappropriateness of use of ornament in glass and iron in architecture. Boileau, following
rational tracts, concludes that the key to beauty in the use of these new materials is to
avoid all imitation of forms used in traditional building methods.
23 Charles Boileau, L’Ornament tue par le verre, Article in the review, Encyclopedie d’architecture, 1876
19
Half a century later, Frank Lloyd Wright follows Boileau’s reflections and brings them
into being.24 Wright urges a new renaissance, comparable to the Italian renaissance, of
Bramante, Brunelleschi and Sansovino, while wondering what place would Michelangelo
have if he lived in this day. The comparison comes out in terms of the use of light in
architecture to give new dimensions to space and perspective. The main advantage of
modern times over the 15th century renaissance, is that while the latter worked on ancient
classical forms, the former have new materials with which to work. Frank Lloyd Wright
urges to make use of a totally new point of view, in architecture design with regards to
the use of the glass and its wonderful properties.
2.1 Modernist Theories and the use of Glass
The exploitation of glass and transparency became a mass-phenomenom most significant
in the design of shops and in the celebrated new office blocks producing what could be
called ‘Infinite Space’25 as Lissitsky describes the newly formed contrasting spaces with
the use of glass as continuous, when compared to other material uses.
Plain transparent glass is noticeable, and yet not quite visible. It can enclose and open up
a space in a number of directions. The diversity of its applications were experimented
upon and utilized by the modernist pioneers. Arthur Korn lists three different uses of
transparency all of which where breaking new ground.26
The first is the glass skin incorporated in an office block in re-inforced concrete and glass
by Mies van der Rohe (1922) where the depth seen through the thin glass skin is the
factor which makes the building stimulating considering the fact that it was one of the
first of its kind. This particular effect gives rise to a third dimension in architecture giving
24 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Future of architecture, 1930, reprinted in an article inside the review Modern
Architecture (1953)
25 El Lissitzky, an artist and architectural critic of the Modern Movement
20
depth an important role when visualizing the building. Korn’s second example takes us to
the unbuilt curved office block again by Mies identified as ‘The Glass Skyscraper’ (1920-
21). The curved outer skin is the strongest feature of his design, with its reflections and
transparencies as well as curvature obtained on a smooth surface confers the building its
inventiveness. Third is Korn’s own design together with Sigfried Weitzmann, the Kopp
& Joeseph shop in Berlin (1928). He emphasizes how his use of glass is only for rational
reasons as a form of barrier for the weather, while the strong colours of the design and
items for retail can be seen through it.
Figure 7 ‘The Glass Skyscraper’ (1920-21)
Glass was taking a multitude of forms and uses in those early days of the modern
movement that was being discerned by the critics and writers. It therefore becomes
pointless for us to indulge in each and every meaning a transparent surface took in
modernist buildings. In the following chapter I will trace through a representative section
of theories evolved in the course of the last century which were of a major influence and
others which are still of influence today. These theories will give us a refreshed insight
into transparency in architecture while serving as a tool for design.
26 Arthur Korn, Glass in Modern Architecture, London 1967, originally published in German under the title
‘Glas im Bau und als Gebrauchsgenenstand in 1926
21
Chapter ThreeChapter ThreeChapter ThreeChapter Three
Architectural Glass theories and their evolution
22
3333 Architectural Glass theories and their evolutionArchitectural Glass theories and their evolutionArchitectural Glass theories and their evolutionArchitectural Glass theories and their evolution
3.0 Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky – Transparency
3.0.1 Literature Review
Transparency by Colin Rowe and Rebert Slutzky is a book that I came across the library
at the Institut du Verre in Paris. In the paragraphs which follow, I will account for the
main aspects inside this book which have a major importance towards the development of
this dissertation. Throughout this chapter I will constantly refer to premises and
suppositions made by the authors and the commentary appended to it.
The main text was originally published in 1964 and is said to be one of the main modern
reference texts for any student of architecture.27 I thus take the opportunity to suggest this
book to fellow students and professors, as I feel it is an important work towards the
understanding of architectural theories.
The article has long been criticized, interpreted and re-interpreted. Stanislous von Moos
went so far as to speak of an almost compulsive fetishism on the literal word
‘transparency’ and stood out against it saying that ‘it had long been used all over the
world’. Rosemarie Haag-Bletter later also writes discussions on the topic aimed at
defining the concept of transparency and its application.28
27 Transparency, back cover
28 “Transparency”, Werner Oeschslin: The search for a Reliable Design Method in Accordance with the
Principles of Modern architecture. Introduction, footnote 3.
23
3.0.2 Analogies to painting
As an introduction to the concept of transparency, which is now considered as part of the
history of theory of architecture, the authors29 start with a comparison of architecture, a
three-dimensional form of art, to paintings, two dimensional art forms. In comparison
with works of cubist leading heroes of the time, the article strips down cubism to its bare
structure and visualizes a fitting analogy to architecture.
A clear explanation can be found by reading through the article itself and Bernard
Hoesli’s commentary. Though the main ideas behind this principle revolve around the
extraction of cubist images and metaphors. The origins of the concept of Transparency
clearly originate from the evolution of glass technology while transparency as a physical
property is used with different meanings and connotations that take it away from its
material assets.
Cubist artistic paintings are characterized by a fusion of temporal and spatial factors. The
represented space is a combination of layers of coloured paint, each occuring at specific
points in time and space. The layers nonetheless skillfully brought together on one
canvas. The method involves simplification of the objects in a collective formal
arrangement, contrasting foreground and background in a pictorial mix. Shrinkage of
depth causes the reduction of voids into a two-dimensional panel, but remaining legible
with the use of transparent geometric layers. (fig) In general one or more geometric
grids/patterns are used through out the image, forming what are called ‘systems of
coordinates’.30
Two or more systems of coordinates interact by intersecting, interlocking, overlapping
and building up, in a clearly ambiguous way. Such ambiguity in Rowe’s view appears to
be in relation with architectural form and invokes his concept of transparency; a concept
29 Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky (1951)
30 Rowe and Slutzky, 1951
24
evolved from Kepes’ notion of the phenomenon of transparency in painting.31 He thus
uses Kepes’ transparency analogically to architecture in an attempt to produce new ways
of looking at architectural design.
3.0.3 Ambiguously bounded spaces
The adaptation of the above mentioned concept into architecture is made clear throughout
Rowe and Sluztky’s article. As such I will simply state the main line of reasoning behind
this translocation of thoughts.
The article orbits its outlook on studies of the well-known villa designs of Le Corbusier,
who did not seem particularly fascinated by glass but that is not where transparency lies
in his buildings.32 Transparency as a phenomenon in architecture can be summarized to
be present in a number of general cases, and is helpful in selected ways.
i) Transparency arises wherever there are locations in space which can be
assigned to two or more systems of reference – where the classification is
undefined and the choice between one classification possibility and another
remains open.
ii) Transparency permits flexibility within a formal arrangement
iii) Transparency makes the analogous classification of use and space possible.
iv) Transparency as a means of organization places a series of visual grouping
possibilities in relation to one another and throws them open.
31 "If one sees two or more figures overlapping one another, and each of them claims for itself the common
overlapped part, then one must assume the presence of a new optical quality. The figures are endowed with
transparency; that is they are able to interpenetrate without an optical destruction of each other. Transparency however implies more than an optical characteristic, it implies a broader spatial order. Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations. Space not only recedes but
fluctuates in a continuous activity. The position of the transparent figures has equivocal meaning as one sees each figure now as the closer, now as the further one." pp. 160-161. Language of Vision (Gyorgy Kepes)
32 Rowe and Slutzky, 1951
25
v) It enables the undivided union of complexity and coherence. 33
The above list explains and briefly names the concepts tied up to phenomenal
transparency as favored by Colin Rowe. This same author later wrote Collage City, a
clear progression of the transparency theory into relative urban forms and spaces whilst
meshing the modern city with the traditional one.
33 Bernard Hoesli, excerpts from his commentary to Transparency
26
3.1 Paul Scheerbart and Bruno Taut
3.1.1 Paul Scheerbart as a novelist
The amazing architectural visions conceived by German Expressionist writer, Paul
Scheerbart, who lived from 1863 to 1915, stand at the forefront of discussions of
architectural transparency. Throughout this section I will examine some of Scheerbart’s
vanguard expressions on the subject of glass and how they were reinterpreted and
invested with new meanings regarding transparency over the course of approximately
nine decades. Professor John Stuart from Florida International University uses the term
‘prehistory of transparency’; suggesting a break between what Scheerbart wrote and these
later interpretations, connected by what can be best characterized as the spiritual,
political, and technological implications of glass transparency.34 Paul Scheerbart was
not only an architectural visionary but also a novel writer. His novels show his concern
with architecture, particularly in ‘The Gray Cloth and Ten Percent White: a Ladies’
Novel’, which portrays the life of an architect traveling around the world constructing
buildings of coloured glass.
Between 1889 and 1915, Paul Scheerbart published nearly thirty works ranging from
novels, theater pieces, and more technical treatises, including ‘The Perpetual Motion
Machine’ (1910), and ‘Glass Architecture’ (1914). He also wrote hundreds of articles for
newspapers, magazines, and anthologies and was a prolific inventor and artist. Scheerbart
strove to integrate his spiritual and Romantic leanings with the modern world, often
relying on glass architecture to achieve these goals. The author articulated his personal
goals in this autobiographical statement from 1904. He wrote:
The frantic exertion I have nevertheless made to forge a connection between this era of
socialism, technology and militarism and my amazing and very religious life, absorbs my
34 John Stuart: 2001
27
so-called human life. It is the source of my books, which always attempt to unite that
which is difficult to unite, to move a desiccated period driven by quantity slowly toward a
new Romanticism and a new piety.
Scheerbart resolved this conflict, it seems, through his particular brand of spiritualism,
which he found expressed in the writings of German physicist and philosopher Gustav
Theodor Fechner, the founder of psychophysics. This was a new branch of study devoted
to the search for a scientific relationship between sensation and stimulus. Fechner,
however, also believed in the connection between individual, human consciousness and a
higher form of consciousness in the form of celestial bodies, including the earth.
Stuart asserts that as a collective result of Scheerbart’s interests, the visionary felt it
critical to find ways to unite humans with these higher forms of consciousness through
the experience of light, colours, and other sensations related to the earth’s natural
landscape. Scheerbart found this spiritual ecology to be most effectively achieved
through architecture of translucent coloured glass. Throughout his work, he connects this
notion to such divergent ideas as the erasure of national boundaries, the elimination of
military technology, and, somewhat oddly, a capitalistic economy that satisfies the wealth
and status of a burgeoning European bourgeoisie. He connects this last idea to the
abundance of technological advancements in wireless communications, and global
newspaper and film distribution. In other words, colored glass architecture would allow
people to own more things and be more connected through them.
As both an architect and a novelist, Scheerbart visibly found it painless to merge the two
professions allowing for a more visionary and metaphorical architecture and figurative
writings. Thus I understand that his writings, are not to be taken literarily but studied in
terms of the metaphors they contain and the particular political and social context in
which they were written.
28
Figure 8 – Paul Scheerbart
3.1.2 Opposing literal Transparency
More than simply promoting translucent coloured glass, Scheerbart actually went to some
length to oppose literal transparency. Even a brief look at Scheerbart’s best-known work,
Glass Architecture, reveals this inclination. Scheerbart outlines his ideas in Glass
Architecture’s 111 chapters, each roughly composed around a single theme. In the
chapter entitled ‘The end of the Window: the Loggia and the Balcony’, for example,
Scheerbart wrote that:
29
‘After the introduction of glass architecture, no one will speak very much more of the
window; the word ‘window’ will disappear from the dictionary. Whoever wants to see
nature can go out on his balcony or into his loggia, which of course can be designed so
that one can view nature as before.’
Toward this point, Scheerbart adds in his chapter entitled ‘Ventilators, which are ousting
the customary windows’
‘When I am in my glass room, I shall hear and see nothing of the outside world. If I long
for the sky, the clouds, woods and meadows, I can go out or repair to an extra-veranda
with transparent glass panes.’
It is very easy to misinterpret at first glance the writings of Paul Scheerbart as putting
forward a manifesto in favour of totally transparent buildings, whereas a closer appraisal
shows how he introduces translucency and colour in an attempt to bridge the gap between
a complete transparency and the solid opacity of brick and stone walls.
However, Stuart notes how Scheerbart identified the origins of coloured glass in ancient
Near Eastern, Byzantine, and Gothic examples. This made him a strong believer in the
power of architectural ornamentation, and highly suspicious of functionalism. In the
chapter called ‘The functional style’ he wrote:
‘let me make it clear that colours in glass can produce a most glowing effect, shedding
perhaps a new warmth; I should like to resist most vehemently the undecorated
‘functional style’ [German: Sachstil] for it is inartistic.’
He then concedes, the functional style may be acceptable for a transitional period; it has
at least done away with the imitations of older styles. By 1914, examples of the
‘functional style’ were becoming more prevalent, and were certainly linked to notions of
efficiency and production found in Gropius and Meyer’s model factory from the same
30
year. These were, in turn, beginning to be aligned to notions of transparency.
Scheerbart, however, felt that the most spiritual architectural modernity united man and
the landscape through a heightened sense of Beauty described by the stimulation similar
to that caused by natural environments. This was to be achieved by light streaming
through walls of translucent coloured glass. Transparency, in his eyes, merely served to
separate man from the landscape through framed views that diminished the potential
effectiveness of modern architecture to create a global impact.
3.1.3 (Mis)Interpreting Scheerbart’s Glass Architecture
Scheerbart’s interest in colour for its associations with nature, and with coloured glass for
its ability to build upon these associations were often misunderstood even in his own
time. The literary critic Jessa Laam, for example, in his 1914 commentary was clearly
not entirely sympathyetic to Scheerbart’s vision. His article entitled ‘Awakening in a
Glass House. A Dream of the Future’ satirized Scheerbart’s fictional style while poking
gentle fun at the notion of living in a glass house. The article begins as the narrator falls
asleep while reading the newspaper and dreams of waking up and running around the
glass house in his pajamas.
And I quote: I inspect my new house. The thing looks good. The dining room has glass
everywhere. No cabinets. Everything between double glass walls, plates, glasses, silver.
Buffet and credenza are missing; the whole room is a giant glass case. One press of an
electric switch: the prismatic glass shines in beautiful colours.
Things, however, start to go terribly wrong. The narrator continues to inspect his house
with a degree of awe until he suddenly finds himself in his music room, transformed into
the famed Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso. The story becomes more fantastical as the
narrator (now Caruso) stands in his glass shoes, singing notes determined by the changing
colours of the glass to a crowd of female admirers. In their excitement, the women begin
to clear items from the music room and Caruso departs to the bedroom. There, as he is
31
resting, he is accosted by architects who designed the glass building. They menacingly
charge:
‘Sir, we are the glass architects. How did you come to critique our idea, whose
practicality is as transparent as glass? With these stones, the last of a subdued epoch, we
will kill you. Pardon me, sirs, I said, it is just a joke. Besides you are not allowed to
throw stones in glass houses. At that point I fumbled for some object for protection.
Suddenly a clinking sound, streams of water trickled down on me.
I awoke and find myself in my room, the carafe of water swinging in one hand, in the
other the morning paper. In bright midday sunlight a newspaper article shines in front of
me entitled ‘The Glass House, a Preliminary Report by Paul Scheerbart.”
In another interpretation of modernism, Cacciari in his analysis of modernity in his work
‘Architecture and Nihilism’35 writes that there are those who aim to express the universal
mobilization of an epoch in a symbol: while the specific character of the different places
in the world disappears as a result of the leveling influence of modernity, they treat the
whole world as a single specific place. This is typical of the work of Paul Scheerbart or
Bruno Taut in his expressionist phase.36 This may have infact had positive effects in the
fast outflow of modernism throughout the western world. Cacciari however does not
notice the metaphorical and poetic aspects of Paul Scheerbart’s works and Tauts later
interpretations. Such a universal language as literature, is bound to be infinitely re-
interpreted giving the impression that the author was writing in general and pertaining to
the whole world. As such one can brand Scheerbart and Taut as the originators of
modernist lines of thought, and thus their contributions where given much weight.
35 Cacciari, Architecture and Nihilism, On the Philosophy of Modern Architecture, Translation by Stephen
Sartarelli, 1995 36 Hilde Heynen, Architecture and Modernity – A Critique. The Metropolis and Negative thought pg136-
141. 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hilde presents a theoretical discussion of the relation between architecture modernity and dwellings and takes a look at the visionaries in the advent of
modernity.
32
3.1.4 Bruno Taut as Scheerbart’s medium
If Scheerbart was relatively unsuccessful in bringing literary opinion to his side, he had
more success communicating directly to the architect Bruno Taut. In fact, as is now well-
known, Bruno Taut dedicated his Cologne Glass House to Paul Scheerbart.37 In addition,
Taut united an advertisement pavilion for the German Luxfer Prism Syndikat and the
spiritual beauty aligned with Scheerbart’s ideals in one pavilion.
Figure 9 - Elevation of Taut's Cologne Glass Pavilion
Taut makes his commitment clear in the first sentence of a flyer available to visitors
entering the building. He writes: “The Glass house has no other purpose than to be
beautiful. In the meaning of the writer Paul Scheerbart, to whom this has been dedicated,
[the pavilion] should be a solution that excites the spatial imagination and the feelings
these effects made possible through the use of glass in the world of architecture.” Taut
does not use Scheerbart’s spiritual language. He points instead to beauty, spatial
imagination, and feelings to evoke a sense of Scheerbart’s meaning.
Bruno Taut was always the primary conduit through which Scheerbart’s architectural
ideas were transmitted to architects and critics after the author’s death during WWI. He
gradually transformed his retelling of Scheerbart’s vision between the end of the war in
1919 and the 1929 publication of Modern Architecture to serve his various intellectual,
political, and practical ambitions.
37 Dennis Sharp, Modern Architecture and expressionism, Postwar expressionist architecture in Germany,
1966 Longmans
33
Taut invoked Scheerbart’s notions of coloured glass and the landscape often and with
vigour in his 1919 publication of Alpine Architecture and in the famed Crystal Chain
correspondence with Walter Gropius, Hermann Finsterlin and others. His opinion had
some slight shifts in 1920 and 1921, as Taut grew impatient with paper architecture and
wanted to build with materials readily available. He did not, however, ever entirely lose
the imaginative vision instilled in him by his older friend Scheerbart. It was simply
changing. In an article entitled ‘Glass Production and Glass Buildings’ written in 1920
for the architectural periodical Qualitaet, for example, Taut bemoaned the lack of
architectural creativity in the capitalistic epoch in which he lived. He sought to recapture
the public’s interest in glass as a material for its properties of transparency, translucency,
reflectivity, iridescence, shine, sparkle, and unheard of colour as described by himself.
Transparency, as a material quality not found in his Glass House, is notably first among
these properties. It has already edged out translucency, the central quality so critical to
Scheerbart for its ability to both separate and contain experience.
Scheerbart’s name, however, and his newly recast ideas, would often be invoked by Taut.
Scheerbart had long been a champion of steel and glass construction. Particularly in his
later work, he often discussed the important role engineers played in the development of
innovative spatial conditions. He even noted on this postcard from 1912 the beauty of the
Great Palm House in Berlin, near where he lived. Scheerbart, however, was not satisfied
with the use of clear glass in the structure and lamented the use of single layered
transparent glass. Coloured insulated glass would have made the structure more
economical and drawn it closer to the spirituality of nature it contained.
To conclude, I would like to reiterate my basic premise that literal transparency was not
ever a component of Scheerbart’s vision. He did, however suggest fluid and
indeterminate relationships between architectural glass and politics, technology, nature,
and culture. Scheerbart argued, however, that the experience of looking into a glowing
glass wall afforded a new understanding of human consciousness. This might be
considered a spiritual or environmental transparency clearly distinguished from the
34
framed view. Or it may be translucency, distinguished by its power to obfuscate our
understanding of what lies beyond, to separate us from the physical world, and to help us
contemplate what lies within. If Scheerbart is truly to sit at the table of architectural
modernism, then perhaps architecture itself should be questioned for its relationship to
such a spiritual translucency. That could be Scheerbart’s true contribution.
35
3.2 Maison de Verre
Brought out of the archives of 20th century collections in Berlin is an anonymous
postcard which Professor John Stuart unearthed during his research on Taut and
Scheerbart’s correspondence. Depicted on the postcard is Pierre Chareau’s 1932 Maison
de Verre and on the right of it an elevator shaft from a building on the Kurfurstendamm.
It is addressed to architecture critic Adolf Behne at about the same date. The back of the
anonymous postcard reads ‘a Scheerbartian dream.’ 38
Figure 10 - Scaled Model of the Maison de Verre, Paris
Just how much the Maison de Verre satisfied this description, was, and still is subject to
interpretation. Nevertheless it is a work that has set an example on new attitudes towards
the use of glass and transparency in both its literal and phenomenological definitions. I
will therefore attempt to demonstrate this relationship throughout this chapter, through an
analysis of the comments and accounts of established critics. A special edition of the
review ‘l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui’ in 1933 was entirely dedicated to Pierre Chareau’s
38 Maison de Verre Pierre Chareau, 1932; Postcard Behne Archives 1932
36
completed work39, while it is known that le Corbusier himself had visited the construction
site many a time during the building process.40 This inherently shows the amount of
importance given to the building at the moment in time and the debate it provoked as an
effort to analyze, commend and censure its appeal.
Figure 11 - Interior view of a model of the Maison de Verre
3.2.1 A step ahead
Paul Nelson, an American, wrote his revue of the house as a young graduate, former
student of Perret. Starting from his premise that there needs to be a fourth dimension in
competent new architecture, he relates how this fourth dimension goes beyond spaces
confined between four walls. It is brought about by a sense of invention and the various
utilities found inside the technologically rich spaces of Chareau’s Maison de Verre. This
39 L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, November 1933 no.9
40 Julius Posener, Souvenir d’une critique d’Architecture.
37
added dimension is what makes the building real and authentic, encompassing a wish to
satisfy the needs of the inhabitants of the house in an evolving society with ingenuity.41
This leap in thought is further supplemented with a dynamism in the floor plan never
seen before. (see diagram). A dynamism in contrast with the static, restrained rooms
surrounded by four walls, which we are used to. The statics (structural supports) are
designed to take the least space possible, having minimal visual impact with the use of a
steel load bearing structure. While in terms of dynamic design, between the static
structure and dynamic plans lies the translucent glass skin, which defines the space as a
skin has always done, without oppressing and without restraining it, as the effect of four
brick walls generally imparts on a useful space.
Figure 12 - Floor Plan dynamism inside the Maison de Verre
41 Paul Nelson, La Maison de la rue Saint-Guillaume, taken from Olivier Cinqualbre, Pierre Chareau, La
Maison de verre, Jean Michel Place editions, 2001, , pg 26
38
3.2.2 Julien Lepage - Details and perpetual transition.
Julien Lepage is the psuedonymn of the man who was a fairly recent recruit in the
review’s offices in 1933, the German Julius Posener.42 Lepage elaborates on two striking
points of the interior elements of the Maison de Verre. His first idea points to the overly
developing spaces in the internal planning of the house providing vibrant sensations to
the visitor while walking through these spaces. Julien Lepage envisions that the
inhabitants must be living through a perpetual transition while moving from one space to
the other, performing everyday chores.43
The second point raised by Lepage refers to the details premeditated by Chareau which
enhance the effect of the dynamic space already stated by Nelson. These details exhault
their own function by having their structure purposely evident and become simply one
and a whole with the building through their joints and connections.
Figure 13 - Sliding door detail - Maison de Verre
42 Olivier Cinqualbre, Un objet singulier, Pierre Chareau, La Maison de verre, Jean Michel Place editions,
2001, pg 6 43 Julien Lepage, Observations en visitant, , taken from Olivier Cinqualbre, Pierre Chareau, La Maison de
verre, Jean Michel Place editions, 2001, , pg 30
39
Figure 14 - The interior details, all carefully designed
Each detail attracts the visitors attention with equal strength through its inspirational
particularity pointed out by Lepage. I extend both his points in this vision to being
contributing elements for producing phenomenal transparency throughout the Maison de
Verre. (explained in the next section).
The mechanic/technological aspect of the details utilised in the Maison de Verre, together
with the perpetual transition present in the plans, fuel further the distinction between the
opposing static (structural) functions, with the dynamic (use) functions of the space and
40
details. The space articulation and the details, together create expressive mechanisms,
already worthy to make this house as an important experiment in architecture.44
Julien Lepage goes beyond himself when attributing the Maison de Verre with such
sublime qualities as to satisfy all the needs of the inhabitant through its elaborate spacing
and detailed technology. Furthermore, such new concepts create new desires in the
inhabitant. He argues that such an intrinsically satisfying building creates a disadvantage
because when all basic needs are fulfilled the inhabitant will have new desires which
need to be satisfied, and Lepage claims that for this purpose the Maison de Verre is an
important experiment which poses this previously unthought of problem in the evolving
architectural profession.45
3.2.3 Ambiguous spaces, glass and transparency
The concept of Colin Rowe’s ‘Transparency’ is not only a tool for design, but can also
be applied retroactively.46 The Maison de Verre was built a number of decades before the
writings of Colin Rowe, but nonetheless it clearly shows indications of the premises
needed to satisfy the existence of transparency.
The points made by Paul Nelson and Julien Lepage have been purposely mentioned
above to strengthen this idea at its base. The dynamic floor plans commended by Nelson
and the perpetual transition by Lepage are what visibly sustain the presence of
phenomenal transparency within the Maison de Verre. A study of the plans and sections
of the house could be applied in a similar way in which Hoesli applies it to various
Corbusier buildings in his commentary of Rowe’s paper.
44 ibid. cit. p34
45 ibid. cit. p35
46 Bernard Hoesli, A commentary on Transparency by Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Addendum.
41
Figure 15 – The plans of the Maison de Verre show a persistent dynamism. Room spaces and
circulation passages intersect, allowing for transparency. The layout is thus clearly ambiguous.
42
Figure 16 – The sketch of a section through the Maison de Verre show an interplay of volumes and
voids throughout the house. Tranparency exists not only on plan but in all three dimensions.
Ultimately one must not neglect the key factor in the totality of Pierre Chareau’s design,
the translucent glass skin. In section 3.1 the premise that Scheerbart claimed translucent
walls to be the ideal exterior skin was made. This skin is complemented with clear glass
where vision of the outside space is needed.47 Such is the use of glass throughout the
Maison de Verre. Long horizontal strips of clear glass line the translucent glass block
wall of the large irregular spaces at intervals on each of the levels. Verandas of clear
glass overlook the tree planted courtyards where a ‘limited nature’ at city level represents
the interaction of building with the natural landscape on which Scheerbart has
elaborated.48
47 Paul Scheerbart, Glass Architecture p.34
48 Paul Scheerbart,Glass Architecture p.36
43
But again, in section 3.1 another premise was made, which considering the literary facet
of Scheerbarts writings, its is essential to note an utopic character where not only
architecture but also people’s lives and culture will drastically change. The fourth
dimension of Nelson’s appraisal and the creation of new desires mentioned by Lepage are
what I see as a step towards Scheerbarts predicted lifestyle and cultural changes in ‘Glass
Architecture’.
44
3.3 Jean Nouvel as an addendum to Modernism
3.3.1 The morality of glass
Jean Nouvel’s interest in the use of glass for representational grounds has a strong
tradition in architecture stretching back through history, and with his preoccupation with
the metaphysics of glass, he was clearly a relevant focus for the purposes of this
dissertation. Some of his buildings, particularly the Cartier Foundation49, express the use
of glass with emerging sensibilities deriving from the tendency of use of contemporary
technology and thus perception. Prof. J. Taylor describes the element of perception in
architecture as the process of moving away from the material towards the immaterial and
from the measurable to the immeasurable.50 While contemporary technologies are the
birth place of Nouvel’s thoughts, they simply provide tools and materials for the purely
architectural creation of the buildings. Nouvel works abstractly, with the nature of
materials, notably their surface qualities, to engender fresh sensations of perception;
qualities which glass does not lack.
49 Fondation Cartier – built by Jean Nouvel in the 1990’s, houses offices for Cartier and an art gallery on
the high groundfloor level. Found on Boulevard Raspail in Paris, I have visited it during my stay in Paris. It sits surrounded by the typical Parisian streetscape of highly decorated apartment blocks while it creates an
astounding material contrast as it is built almost entirely of glass and therefore rises like a ghostly spectre behind the sheildings of street chestnut trees and on-site trees along the side of this major boulevard in Montparnasse.
50 Jennifer Taylor, Transparency: Allusion and Illusion in Contemporary Architecture, unpublished
Conference proceedings, Through a Glass Darkly: Transparency in the Twentieth Century Art and
Architecture, 2001
45
Figure 17 - Glass panels at the Cartier Foundation - Jean Nouvel
The walls of the Cartier Foundation Building in Paris, descend directly in terms of
structure, symbol and spirit, from heritage as it was interpreted in the Modern Movement.
Glass, now available in large sheets, together with steel and concrete, was the material
with which to build, with the machine, the architecture for the new age.51 –Bruno Taut
Therefore glass was progressive.
But more than simply representing progress, glass buildings had both social and spiritual
connotations. Inspired by Paul Scheerbart (see 3.1), the Expressionists dreamt of
sparkling socially-equalizing cities where the sun would always shine and crime would
be no more. So glass was moral and purifying.
51 Bruno Taut, Glass Architecture, 1914, Cologne
46
Further, the glass world was seen as the antitheses of the heavy, comfortable, over-
stuffed, world of the previous century. The cold and revealing world of glass would be
morally and intellectually purifying. Thus, glass architecture was socially redeeming.
Skeletal glass buildings provide the futuristic image of a re-born world. So glass is
progressive, moral, purifying and redemptive. As Scheerbart declared, “Glass
architecture will completely transform mankind.”
3.3.2 Space and form
Glass walls, however as seen in the discussion about ‘Transparency’, have major spatial
connotations and they became tools for the expression which I venture to compare to the
new space of Einstein’s relativity theory. Space was comprehended as unfixed and
unbounded. To accept space in this sense, architecture was reduced to its bare essentials –
simply minimal vertical and horizontal planes – so that generic space was freely
expressed, through and beyond, with the least obstruction. Van Doesberg in 1924 said:
“In architecture’s next phase of development the ground plan must disappear
completely.” Today Jean Nouvel follows on to this with his even more radical claim,
“The future of architecture will no longer be architectural”52
Clare Melhuish in a recent essay about the influence of the Modern Movement, points out
that Modernism has paved out the way for a dematerialization of architecture that was to
be justified by an increasing dependency on media and representation theories in the late
twenthieth century.53 This somehow throws light on Nouvel’s denotation above, where
architecture has become what is seen in representations such as photographs and
computer generated images, and its not the building itself what constitutes architecture
anymore.
52 Jean Nouvel, “A Method on Discourse”, World Architecture, No31, 1994 p.33
53 From dematerialisation to depoliticisation in architecture, Clare Melhuish, from Chapter 16, ‘This is not
Architecture’ p222, Edited by Kester Rattenbury, 2002, Routledge, London.
47
3.3.3 Transparency within the Cartier Foundation
Transparency is but one part, yet an important part, of Nouvel’s search for the aesthetic
dimension of illusion. His interest in illusion and immateriality would also appear to
derive from his fascination with the new technologies and their potential. Nouvel
celebrates what he calls the ‘miracle’ of the shift from the tangible to the image. He
refers, for example to the TV receiver where on a 30mm thick screen one can view events
all over the world. The point to note is that our interest in the television set as an object,
and our interest in its functional mechanisms are negligible compared with our interest in
the information on the screen. We are interested in output rather than the object.54 Hence,
through technologies there is a move away from materiality, a position which stands firm
in his design of the Cartier Foundation.
54 Jean Nouvel, “A Method on Discourse”, World Architecture, No31, 1994 p.33
48
Figure 18 - The Cartier Foundation, merged in between the trees
The building’s glass walls establish an ever reflecting pattern from the trees seeming to
extend in layers and layers all over the site and beyond. The Cartier Foundation can be
said to have no grand urban pretensions, but it rather exists by day as a seeming infinitely
extendable series of transparent and translucent planes, and by night as diffusing volumes
49
of light. That may sound simple but visually this is a most complex building. Nouvel’s
interest has clearly been in the building as an art piece, working with surfaces which are
transparent, translucent, and reflective.
In prosaic terms, the building consists of a series of seemingly dissociated glass planes,
commencing with a ten meter plane on the edge of the Boulevard, and marching back
across the site at staggered distances from each other. The building is precisely
articulated by the predominant free-standing planes that soar like blades, splicing the site
and cutting the sky. These over-run the length of the building and rise above it. The
building is held and compressed between these major planes. Unglazed sections of the
frame create another level of transparency and ambiguity. Twenty individual planes of
glass enveloped in their structure, 8m by 3m, slide open connecting the ground floor
gallery with the garden.
Figure 19 - A section through the Cartier Foundation
50
3.3.4 The properties of glass generally exploited by Nouvel
Working with many of the special properties of glass, particular conditions come into
play in the building, one being the most complex exploitation of transparency, which
again reminds us of Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky’s seminal essay of the 1960’s. They
wrote “the transparent ceases to be that which is perfectly clear and becomes instead that
which is clearly ambiguous.”55 Here, immateriality as defined by Nouvel, combines with
illusion with endless possibilities of visual interpretation.
Adding to the apparent instability of the surfaces, the property of glass provides dramatic
changes in colour, opacity, reflectivity, etc. under different lighting conditions.
So there is the experience in layered glass architecture to be constantly placed in
paradoxical and ambiguous relationships to space and objects. He writes, “I like this idea
of dominating matter through the manipulation of perception. I am interested in playing
with the effect of turning something (ie architecture) that has been fatally solid and stable
into something fragile and uncertain.”56
Glass, like the TV screen is a remarkable thing. As already stated. Jean Nouvel’s interest
in immateriality, within the modern tradition, appears as a significant part of the
evolution of world architecture as it moves into the 21st century. It is imperative in
Nouvel’s designs to respond to the times through the rejection of the object, and thus
exploiting the most contemporary technologies and, particularly, the material glass, using
it to explore transparency and the Platonic absolutes of formless form. He therefore
engages in transparency as a means to provide a formal statement of pure architectural
intent. This building with its explorations of the potential of the transparent, joins the age
long quest for immateriality and its powerful symbolism.
55 Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Transperancy: Literal and Phenomenal, first published in Perspecta,
No.8, 1963 p.45
56 Jean Nouvel, “A Method on Discourse”, World Architecture, No31, 1994 p.37
52
4444 Transparency in MalteTransparency in MalteTransparency in MalteTransparency in Maltese Architecturese Architecturese Architecturese Architecture
4.0 Applying transparency retroactively
Not all critiques intending to bring down a theory succeed in their intent. On the other
hand some involuntarily create essential points on which to evolve the theory into a much
wider spectrum of thought. I see the case of Stanislous von Moos as one matching the
above description. As stated earlier, von Moos wrote that the transparency concept had
been used worldwide throughout the ages, implying that Rowe and Slutzky had not in
fact come up with such a fresh idea. I believe that there is an element of truth in what von
Moss implied, but this does not mean discarding ‘Transparency’ as obsolete but on the
contrary, it spreads the idea divergingly through space and time, bathing architecture with
a whole new meaning.
The height of architectural creativity on the Maltese islands is found throughout the
centuries of Renaissance and Baroque design. Baroque is the architectural phenomenon
that is most widespread in Maltese towns and cities, giving them the character they boast
today. Phenomenal transparency has been distinguished as being present where the use of
glass is not essential (ie not literal transparency). The use of glass in renaissance and
baroque Malta was limited to small transparent panes, nonetheless phenomenal
transparency can be held as existing in a number of buildings, aspects and points of view.
Bernard Hoesli writes: Transparency as organization of form produces clarity as well as
it allows for ambiguity and ambivalence. It assigns each part not only one definite
position and distinct role in a whole but endows it with a potential for several
assignments, each of which though distinct can be determined from time to time by
deciding in which connection one chooses to see it.57
57 Bernard Hoesli, Transparency – Instrument of Design, 1968.
53
Throughout this section I will explore a representative set of buildings and apply on them
the ‘test of transparency’58. Applying Hoesli’s principles, the test is a prerequisite for any
insight, understanding or knowledge extracted from a building. The writer continues, ‘the
attempt to describe buildings independently from their historical context, to see them side
by side across periods of stylistic differences and to insist on the common quality on the
works form widely different epochs…may disturb or shock and dismay the historian. But
of course it is not proposed to remove a particular building from its historical and cultural
context; to look for transparency is merely a possibility to disengage part of its
characteristic form.’59
The following sections are purposely meant to allow a new view of the characteristic
form of these timeless architectural monuments, to observe the buildings from an angle
which was not fully exploited in the past.
4.1 Phenomenal Transparency in Maltese architecture
The set of buildings which are about to be examined serve as a stepping stone to one
another in the process of understanding the application of the concept of phenomenal
transparency. The complexity of the buildings being analysed increases gradually starting
from the Attard Parish Church, to St.Johns co-cathedral, and reaching its highest through
the plans of the Magesterial Palace in Mdina (a.k.a. the Vilhena Palace).
4.1.1 Attard Parish Church
The design of this church is attributed to Tumas Dingli60 (1591-1666) but according to
another source, there exists little proof that Dingli was in fact the architect in charge of
this workshop, although there is contractual evidence that he has worked on the church as
a sculptor. The later works attributed to Dingli, subsequently confirm a direct evolution
58 Bernard Hoesli, Transparent Form-Organization as an Instrument of Design 1968
59 Bernard Hoesli, Transparent Form-organization as an Instrument of Design 1968
60 Joseph A. Tonna, Tumas Dingli 1591-1666, Malta Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers p.5
54
and a similarity through these works, namely the churches at Birkirkara and Naxxar built
at a later date. At a time when mannerist theorists in Rome where reaching their zenith,
the architect rejected that idiom and returned to the first principles of the Renaissance.61
Figure 20 - The western fronts of Dingli's churches. From top: Attard, Birkirkara, and Naxxar.
Photo Courtsey: J. A. Tonna
61 ibid cit. p.6
55
The church’s planning is a cruciform one, utilizing the proportional system based on the
circle, square and the double square favored by Renaissance theorists. This church in
particular was chosen due to its cruciform planning, which is used as an example by
Hoesli62 in his commentary to Rowe’s ‘Transparency’. The crucifix shape, used
predominantly as a form of church planning during Renaissance and Baroque periods,
takes ground from Renaissance standardized interiors, which form the prolific basis
from which phenomenal transparency arises, as seen is Hoesli’s examples of the villas of
Le Corbusier.
4.1.1.1 Super-impostion of use and space.
It may seem frivolous to ascribe with a concept of ambiguity, an architecture which is so
keen at representing the Renaissance maxims of clarity and order. Nonetheless, the same
structural shapes imposed by the classical movement on the Renaissance, had their
influence on mannerist and baroque styles, which in turn did not so stubbornly embrace
this simplistic lucidity but evolved into more ambiguous and transparent treatment of
plans and elevations.
Tumas Dingli was infatuated with the temple shape entrances of Italian churches, so
much so that it is present in at least three of the designs attributed to him, namely the
Attard Church, the Birkirkara church and the now demolished Mosta church. Being his
first attempt, the exterior of the Attard parish church is the least elaborate, while
contrastingly its interior is one of the most intricate and fascinatingly similar to Italian
styles in its subtle balance of vaults of domes, overly faithful to the purity of form dogma,
with decoration applied in an especially sensitive pattern.63
The church at Attard is of modest magnitude, reduced in size by the absence of side
chapels along the aisle. Dingli decided to do away with the chapels as he saw them as a
62 Bernard Hoesli, Commentary on Transparency.
63 Joseph A. Tonna p.8
56
step backwards from his goal of achieving classical purity of form.64 Had he used side
chapels he would not have been able to produce a temple entrance with the right
proportions. This decision effects the interior space of the church, who’s side chapels are
compressed to shallow niches, still maintaining the repetitive positioning along the walls
of the aisle.
Figure 21 – Plan showing overlapping of space inside the Attard Parish church.
Diagram by the Author
Figure 21 shows how each niche will now claim part of the spaces forming the main aisle
to itself. The effect produced is still reminiscent of the a design containing a number of
repetitive side chapels such as Cassar’s St.John’s Cathedral, but is seen here to be
compacted into not only a smaller space by also the same space claimed by the nave.
64 Joseph A. Tonna p.9
57
This creates an ambiguity in the use of space, where the same space can be claimed by
two terms of reference (i.e. the niche and the aisle), and both claim the visitors’ attention,
depending on how they are interpreted. Here, the concept of transparency is applied to the
space inside the nave of this church, whereby its use and supporting structure created are
not clearly defined but, as Rowe describes similar occurrences, clearly ambiguous. 65
Every niche can be visualized alone in its entirety as a separate entity, but its sides are
enclosed between the pilasters that form an essential part of the church’s structure. Thus
the duality of function of the pilaster creates a further possibility of interpretation of the
form which can be both structural and space defining, depending on how it is viewed.
4.1.1.2 The crossing
Having a latin cross plan with the nave as the longer arm of the cross and together with
each element inside the nave drawing attention to itself, an overall imbalance is created
which needed to be neutralized by a greater emphasis put along the crossing. The system
of proportions used inside the Attard Parish Church is one preferred by masters as Leon
Battista Alberti, and Francesco Di Giorgio.66 It appears that the architect has made good
use of these proportions in order to achieve the best possible aesthetic balance. The
crossing and the transepts are covered by three domes; each composed of a circular
segment over a square space as seen in figure…. The triple domes donate visual strength
to the whole crossing, which although is shorter in length than the nave gains importance
by means of the curvatures of the domes and the filtering light. This strength markedly
slows down the drive towards the altar giving an general centrality to the whole church.67
65 Rowe and Slutzky, 1951 66 Joseph A. Tonna p.8
67 Joseph A. Tonna p.8
58
Figure 22 - Section through the Attard parish church at the crossing.
The crossing is therefore seen as the geometric center and a focal point for activity, while
the architect’s effort is to bring the crossing to transpire as an aesthetic and volumetric
center, a more crucial aspect in the eyes of Tumas Dingli.
59
4.1.2 St.John’s Co-cathedral, Valletta
St John’s Cathedral was commissioned in 1572 by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as
the conventual church of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John. It represents the
most important works of Maltese architect, Gerolamo Cassar and was one of the first
buildings completed (1578) in the new city of Valletta. It was to serve as the religious
headquarters of the Order for the next 200 years.
Figure 23 - Labeled plan of St.John's Cathedral
60
4.1.2.1 Standardized planning
Unlike the planning of Dingli’s latin-cross churches, St.John’s Cathedral used double
bellfry façade and a series of longitudinally aligned chapels complementing its structure
and greater décor. The thick structural piers create six equal spaces in between them and
the exterior walls along each side of the church. Nine of these spaces served as chapels
each for a different langue of the Order of St.John. (see figure 23). This same repetitive
structural solution created a rhythmic effect, which is present in most churches and
cathedrals having a similar form. Nonetheless it produces the result desired by its
architect, Gerolamo Cassar. The long vault serving as a ceiling to the nave from the
entrance right up to the northern extremity of the choir has its supporting walls
intersected by the entrances to the vaulted spaces created to wrap the chapels, as shown in
figure 23.
Hughes describes the vault covering the nave as ‘uninterrupted’68, but as seen through the
eyes of ‘transparency’, its movement is opposed by the repetitive perpendicular incisions
provoked by the symmetrical positioning of the chapels. Bernard Hoesli who played an
important role in the evolution of the theory of transparency, explains the occurrence of
the above mentioned visual outcome by means of the plan of Sant Andrea in Mantua. (see
fig). Hoesli explains ‘The side altar niches are set off from as well as incorporated into
the standardized interior, which forms the fertile ground from which transparency in the
figurative sense arises: the observer is virtually suspended between the forward
momentum of the nave and the opposing effect used by the perpendicular layers of space
that penetrate its length one after the other.’69
68 Quentin Hughes, Fortress – Architecture & Military History in Malta p.91
69 Bernard Hoesli, A commentary, for Transparency
61
Figure 24 - Photograph showing the extent of the nave intersected by the chapels
The niches are replaced by unrestrained chapels inside Cassar’s cathedral in Valletta,
bestowing a stronger significance to Hoesli’s explanation of perpendicular spaces, than
the example at Mantua, which comprises only small altar niches.
62
Figure 25 - The long nave is seen to be repetitively intersected by perpendicular axes from each
chapel to the one facing it.
4.1.2.2 The annexes and loggias in axial harmony
For quite a long period of time after it was constructed, a number of additions and
alterations where made to the Cathedral.70 Annexes on each side of the façade where built
along St. John’s Street. The Sacristy and the oratory of St. John are housed inside these
annexes respectively. Each annex has two entrances; one directly from the cathedral, and
another one through loggias, added at a later stage. The positioning of the rooms and
70 Quentin Hughes, Fortress, Architecture and Military History in Malta. p.91. In the five years beginning
in 1662, Mattia Preti, working in oil onto the stone, produced powerful scenes, while each chapel inside the
cathedral was decorated with impressive sculpture and paintings.
63
doorways show how attentive the architect was to the linearity of the plans with a good
use of parallel axes, cutting through both annexes as seen in the diagram.
Two loggias were added to the lateral sides of the cathedral, one facing Republic Street
and the other looking onto Merchant’s street. A number of equidistant windows allow
light to filter into these loggias, which served as passage ways and as transition spaces to
the outside, while at the same time embellishing what is now Queen’s square and the exit
to the cemetery of the cathedral.
The geometry used in the positioning of the loggias is aligned perpendicularly to the
façade, and adds a further emphasis on the length of the nave by providing two more
additional axes, parallel to the nave. At the same time we can distinguish the
perpendicular axes over which the annexes are planned from the axis cutting through the
plans of the two annexes, unbroken through the nave.
Figure 26 - Respesentation of the numner or perpendicular axes inside the cathedral and its annexes
64
Figure 26 provides an insight into the axes utilized throughout the planning of St. John’s
Cathedral, and its various additions. This same diagrammatic method is used by Hoesli,
in his commentary of ‘Transparency’. With the aid of the plan of Villa Emo by Palladio,
he shows how the intersecting axes created a number of spatial groupings, in which
transparency typically appears.71
4.1.2.3 Façade transparency
The façade of the Co-cathedral of St.John, has long been evaluated as having a simple
fort-like design, and it is frequently thought that Gerolamo Cassar could have been less
unpretentious in his intent. These statements may be partly veritable if one takes into
consideration the extreme level of detail which adorns its interior and compares it
stylistically to the exterior attributes. Nevertheless, the fact that the interior was
redecorated to its present state many decades after Cassar’s death must not be
overlooked. It is said that St.John’s reflects the character of the Knights – a sober and
rather pure appearance of the façade, and an ornate, ambitious and royal in its interior.
Inside this section I will take a closer look at the features of this façade in an attempt to
locate its levels of austerity through the concept of transparency.
Figure 27 - St. John's Cathedral - Facade and Annexes
71 Bernard Hoesli, A commentary, for Transparency
65
Similarly to the previous situations examined in this dissertation, Hoesli’s pictorial
examples as aids for describing the transparent qualities of historic architecture come into
play. The author borrows an example from Rowe’s less known second article on
transparency72; this being Michelangelo’s design for the façade of San Lorenzo in
Florence, a church design which remained unbuilt.
The first noticeable elements on the façade of St.John’s are the vertical pilasters, found in
most church facades of the 16th and 17th centuries. Although these elements may seem an
obvious choice, it requires a certain mastery in their use, if the architect’s intent is to
achieve a balanced façade. This balance is attained with a proper juxtaposition of vertical
and horizontal elements, the half coloumns, cornices and entablatures. In this case
Cassar’s mannerisms may have taken him away from achieving the classical ideal.
Out of the eight vertical pilasters, two are on each tower and four are on the main façade
inducing the observer to look up. This monumental verticality is crossed by cornices at
two levels, dividing the cathedral into three sections. The horizontal members are
evidently in a minority to their vertical counterparts. It appears that such an outnumbering
gives monumental poise to the facade, almost obliging the observer to look up towards
the pinnacles.
When the two front annexes where built, a sensibility towards connecting their facades to
that of St. John’s Cathedral allows for an interpretation of the built block as a unified
whole. This function is fulfilled by an upper cornice framing the annexes, and perfectly
aligned with the entablature already present on the church. As much as transparency
allows for elements to be interpreted singularly or in a collective within the building, it
allows two nearly separate entities such as the annexes and the church itself, to be
interpreted in the same way. Very cleverly the facades of the annexes have been designed
to be of precisely identical height even though the street has a slight gradient, all in
support of a unified composition on each side of St.John’s Co-cathedral. The upper floor
72 Rowe and Slutzky produced a second article on Transparency which was published in Perspecta no. 1977
66
of the two towers is elevated onto a double cornice. This raises the already high towers,
further more, underlining the strength the two towers have in the overall composition.
The ambiguity in this façade lies in the fact that each element can be interpreted in a
number of ways, depending on the terms of reference used by the observer. Ideally, if
copies of design sketches by Cassar are found, depicting to some extent the design stages
and concepts in a similar way to those of Michelangelo, one would be able to investigate
deeper into the reasons why each and every element on the façade was used in the way it
was.
67
4.1.3 Vilhena Palace, Mdina
The third and final example taking the transparency test is the Magesterial Palace
(Vilhena Palace) of Mdina; a building which has exterior sides facing two important open
spaces in the old city. The first stands facing St. Publius square, near Mdina’s main gate,
while the second looks onto a small square at a junction between the old Strada
Magisteriale and St. Paul’s street.73
Figure 28 - Vilhena palace from St.Publius Square (Photo courtsey: D. De Lucca)
73 De Lucca D. (1995), MDINA a History of its urban space and architecture, Malta: Said.
68
4.1.3.1 The palace’s three roles
The Vilhena Palace was built to serve three different purposes. It was to function as a
residence for GrandMaster Vilhena, as an administrative center and as law courts. All
these were housed in the same unified design by the engineer and knight of the order,
Mondion.74 The combination of functions is doubtlessly the main reason behind the
preferred design planning.
The law courts take up the northern-eastern side of the Magesterial Palace and its official
entrance is rightly at this side of the building. It can be noted that both the axes through
this entrance and main doorway at the forecourt meet at the center of the internal
courtyard. The rooms in which the diverse activities took place enfold the central
courtyard with a circulative loggia present on all sides of the open space. The generated
open space creates a point of interaction of the spaces used by the personnel of the three
institutions. A varying degree of enclosure is thus created throughout the building,
forming part of a ‘transparent form-organiztion’ explained by Hoesli in his Addendum.75
Hoesli explains “it would appear that a concept of space, that conceives the world of
space as consisting of two but complementary aspects of solid and void, is the very matrix
on which transparency can thrive.”76 The above statement is made after a thorough
clarification of the presence of spaces and voids and their manifestation in architecture.
Thus it can be suggested that transparent-form organization is present inside the palace in
terms of the combination of interior, exterior spaces and spaces which are somewhere in
between such, as the internal courtyard.
74 Denis De Lucca, 1995
75 Bernard Hoesli, Excursus on the concept of architectural space, from Transparency
76 ibid cit.
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Figure 30 – The Facade of the Vilhena Palace
4.1.3.2 The central courtyard
The space occupied by the central courtyard is delineated by two stories of arches. The
arches allow a view of each side of the building while acting as a permeable membrane in
between the separate functions. ‘Thus the spatial zones are differentiated and united.
Transparency makes the analogous classification of use and space possible.’
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Figure 31 - Photos showing central courtyard at the Vilhena Palace
(Photos, courtesy: Buhagiar M. and Fiorini S. (1996))
4.1.3.3 Planning Geometry
Vilhena Palace was built over the site on which were the foundations of the L’Isle Adam
Palace.77 The grid formed by these foundations was re-used and the room layout was
built respecting the former layout allowing the planning to take a regular arrangement.
On the other hand the front part of the building, including the forecourt is aligned to the
77 Denis De Lucca, 1995
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street and the direction of the present main-gate of Mdina. Thus the building rests on a
number of separate geometric layers, skillfully intertwined to solve the problem of
alignment.
Figure 32 - The plan shows the two main grid patterns used to solve the plans due to the restrictions
encountered by Mondion.
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4.2 Literal Transparency in Maltese architecture
Transparent materials have not been very much exploited in architecture on these islands,
less for cost motives than due to a culturally inscribed conception that abundant use of
glass increases the temperature inside the building. Considering the sunny weather
conditions during most of the year, this position may be empathized, but perhaps being to
some extent deceitful to the architectural profession. The lack of use of good building
details and a general wrong choice of materials hardly make the use of transparent glass a
feasible choice.
Glass is found in respectable amounts inside churches in the form stained glass, which is
a scarcely transparent form, frequently conceived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
But large transparent panes have rarely made it onto the facades of Maltese architecture,
except in trivially functional designs such as car showrooms, and shop frontages.
Mies’ glass skyscraper is beyond doubt not the object of inspiration for the designers of
the Portomaso business tower. Its square shape and reflective blue glass panels are more
reminiscent of early 70’s structuralism from Northern European countries, than a late
90’s outset.
4.3 Local Current Trends in Glass architecture
With the formulation of a small number of architectural offices scattered around the
island, in recent years, we have assisted to a major step forward into architectural design.
While skipping a few historical movements, conscientious clients and institutions are
allowing more contemporary designs to be realized by the more competent of these firms
with respectable results.
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This trend has brought about a wider use of transparent materials, used primarily within
projects involving a re-use, restoration and conservation projects where new materials are
to be kept differentiated and in contrast to the old globigerina limestone. As much as
there is little space left for developed in Malta, the potential for the use of glass inside the
conversion and re-use of older buildings. Glass’ advantage lies right in its transparency
which gives the material a neutral quality and endless possibility to manifest its elegance
without obstructing historical and stylistic values of the older materials. The conversion
of the Garrison Church at Castille into the Stock Exchange Building is a recent example,
transparency being a characteristic of efficient markets, particularly financial markets.
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Chapter FiveChapter FiveChapter FiveChapter Five Selecting the best use for achieving transparency
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5555 Selecting the best use for achieving transparencySelecting the best use for achieving transparencySelecting the best use for achieving transparencySelecting the best use for achieving transparency
5.0 Local Situation
Malta’s lack of use of glass reflects the situation of the construction industry in a number
or ways. The need of locally based glass-specialized civil engineers, and the general
inexperience of the constructors when dealing with such materials, are all but a few of the
reasons why the use of glass may not take off.
Climate is yet another hurdle. More than a physical one I venture to assume that in view
of the rapid evolution of modern technology, it is generally a psychological hurdle. The
reputation of glass to cause a greenhouse effect is unquestionably not unfounded, but
turnarounds do exist. In view of this, Maltese architects are still very much reluctant to
employ more intelligent glass technologies and designs. Nonetheless one must also
consider factors of market prices in relation to other more common solutions.
5.1 New Proposals.
The use of glass in architecture has become increasingly global since Libbey-Owens-
Ford joined the Pilkington family of worldwide glass companies in 1986. As a result,
today’s Pilkington utilizes an international network of research, distribution, fabrication
and support capabilities to create glass for universal architectural applications, including
projects for making the use of glass more feasible in countries with a temperate climate
such as Malta. For example, their recent product advancements include the world’s first
pyrolytic self-cleaning glass, the world’s first solar control Low-E glass and recent
additions to high-performance tinted float glass.78
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These developments in technology from the leading glass researchers, project the use of
glass in construction to new levels and heights. As seen in the international arena, there is
no lack of manipulation of the transparent materials, throughout major and minor projects
alike.
5.1.1 Glass-skin developments
Low-Emmissivity Glass has recently made the headlines as the new material for the
future. Nonetheless the material is still under rapid development, with periodical injection
into the markets of newly added properties. Scarce or no use at all has been made of this
new material on the Maltese islands, as it is yet impossible to locate a building which has
brought it into play.
Most Low-E glass is produced by simply applying a special coating to sheets of finished
glass in a process called sputter coating. These “soft coat” products have some
limitations but an almost limitless number of aesthetic and performance options.
Different kinds of glass have different performance and aesthetic characteristics. That’s
the whole idea behind this research. The coating can be scratched or damaged, and can
potentially deteriorate with exposure to air, giving the product a limited shelf life. And
much of the fabrication process, including bending and tempering, often must be done
before the glass is coated.
Recognizing the inherent problems of soft-coats – including handling problems,
inconsistent aesthetics and, in many cases, extremely long lead times – the engineers at
Pilkington developed two new kinds of Low-E glass: Low-E Glass, which combines a
consistently clear, colour-neutral appearance with excellent thermal performance
properties; and Solar Control Low-E Glass, which gives both solar and thermal control in
a single surface.
78 Pilkongtion Manufacturing details. 2002
78
5.1.2 Intelligent Glass Facades
The idea of an advanced “polyvalent Glass Skin” 79 which can serve either as thermal or
solar protection, according to requirements and time of the year, was the main idea in
Mike Davies’ article of 1981. This article is a summary of a study carried out in 1978 for
Pilkington Glass Limited, set out the future goals of the glass industry in the wake of the
energy crisis. These declared aims led to the development of countless new glass
products. Today a range of different glass panes are available, including glass with a
purer base mix, high quality selective coatings, as well as laminated glass, insulated
glass, and multiple-layer insulating units with different thermal and solar protection
properties.
Despite the many technological advances, however, the glass industry has not yet been
able to fully realize Davies’ idea of a polyvalent wall. Glass with variable properties is
still at a prototype stage. Thus new types of thermal and solar protecting glass still have
to be supplemented with traditional methods.
However, as the ecological goal is to reduce the total primary energy needs of a building
to a minimum, ideally down to zero, then energy consumption for ventilation, cooling
and lighting must also be taken into consideration. This can be achieved by the increased
use of natural, renewable energy sources such as solar radiation or air-movements.
Towards the end of the 1970’s Mike Davies undertook in collaboration with Richard
Rogers a study on glass for the for the English Company, Pilkington. In an article which
created a great commotion amongst the glass industry, entitled “The future of the glass
façade” 80.
79 Andrea Compagno, Intelligent Glass Facades, Material Practice Design, 1995, Birkhauser. – Polyvalent
Skin walls. 80 Mike Davies, The future of glass facades, Pilkington Press 1981. He developed the idea of a dynamic
skin, changing according to the needs of the of the user, which can act at the same time as a solar protection and an obstacle against the loss of heat, reflect heat or let it penetrate, open or close.
79
‘We have shifted from the mechanical age to a "solid state" era. The world of the 21st
century will be a "solid state" world. "Solid state" techniques are based upon materials
which can alter their properties or transmit information merely due to electronic or
molecular proceedings. Hence we can dispense with mechanical systems in many cases.’
-Mike Davies
Mike Davies was greatly inspired by the architecture of the southwest of the United
States in the 60’s and 70’s. A number of architects had been performing experiments on
the design of an ecological house with external walls, which are reactant to the influence
of the external environment. Inside his own house, Steve Baer has combined with
considerable success, a number of technically simple elements, such as primitive forms,
forming walls of glass in between a number of layers, some water tanks to store heat and
clay bricks, relying on solar collectors and on the direction of the wind. This house is the
demonstration of the capacity of the adaptation of the skin of a house to the changes in
the external and internal environments, and also to the changing needs of its inhabitants.
Mike Davies proposed to enhance this principle even more with the use of state-of-the-art
technologies: liquid crystals, laser beams and holograms, photovoltaic cells, cylindrical
openings, and glass openings which block the sun’s rays.
His polyvalent wall, being could be both opaque and transparent and any point in
between these two states. It could change the direction of the flux of energy towards the
interior of the exterior of the house and change the illumination of the house according to
what is needed. The essential elements of this wall are the photosensitive and thermo-
sensitive glass types, which react to the minutest change in the environment around it.
Different European and Japanese producers have done the first research work on glass
facades with variable properties and the first prototypes where achieved before the end of
the first half of the 1980’s. Their practical use in the construction industry is until now
sporadic and still limited mostly due to cost reasons, but there is now a tendency towards
the lowering of their prices. In fact, after 1993 one could find transportable kinds of glass
80
at a reasonable price and of a size suitable for the use in interiors, but only after 1995,
electrochromic adaptable materials to skin the exterior, could be located.
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6.0 Summary Statement
The origins of the concept of the transparent form are rooted inside the development of
glass as a material. Colin Rowe, being at the foremost of this concept could only have
conceived his line of thought when possibilities in the use of material glass as envisaged
by Paul Scheerbart, were becoming a reality. Scheerbarts’ thoughts have revealed
themselves as being more than a thuggish manifesto, but means to be absorbed in its
political and social contest to understand that the authors aspirations through glass
architecture which reflected metaphorical properties where society can be idealized
through the environment produced by a transparent/translucent urban landscape.
Pierre Chareau’s Masion de Verre, is also a symbolic icon of an evolution in the making.
Its unique and ingenious design has slid the door to modernity further open, allowing
modernism to become more approachable. While being an attempt to satisfy the idealistic
frame of mind, it is also a solution to a specific contextual architectural challenge.
In our times, Jean Nouvel’s Office, shows its mastery in the use of glass. His mastery
combines an aquired morality of glass and the materials it surrounds with a love for
technological means. Progression and purity walk hand in hand inside Nouvel’s
Fondation Cartier, a design which is true to the materials, and uses highly developed
engineering and structure, therefore moral and progressive.
It has been shown how an evolution of a material, has allowed the development of novel
ways of looking at architecture, where it doesn’t matter whether the building pertains to a
specific era or stylistic period. Transparency can thus be applied retro-actively, and
allows us fresh ways of interpreting a building. The Attard Parish Church, St.John’s Co-
cathedral, and Vilhena’s Magesterial Palace have been seen to be noble examples of the
Renaissance and Baroque Malta to manifest phenomenal transparency.
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Since its genesis, architecture has dealt with technological progress, and evolved its
theories on the basis of envisioned physical means. There is no reason why we should
stop the continuous process of understanding and creativity. Our contemporaries are
offering the scientific means to progress, and thus, locally a confident leap is needed to
take us in a forward direction, while gaining knowledge from our past.
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