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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

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DedicationDedicationDedicationDedication

to my parents

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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

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Chapter OneChapter OneChapter OneChapter One Introduction

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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.

11

Chapter TwoChapter TwoChapter TwoChapter Two Architectural Theories relating to Glass

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

51

Chapter FourChapter FourChapter FourChapter Four Transparency in Maltese Architecture

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 29 - Plans of Vilhena Palace (Courtsey: D. De Lucca)

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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.

81

Summary Statement

82

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.

83

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.

84

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