Transparency as a compositional tool...

The reading related well with architecture and definitely provided some deep insight into some great architectural work. My understanding from what I read direct me to thinking that literal transparency is a lot easier to comprehend, and very literal (pun intended). Phenomenal transparency defines layers of information sandwiched together.

The part discussing Delaunay’s Simultaneous Windows and Gris’s Still Life was a little harder to comprehend. Delaunay’s piece is categorized as literal, and Gris’ as phenomenal. As far as I remember, literal transparency is about the transmittance of light through materials. Simultaneous windows is a composition of colored planes, which makes me feel that this could well be under the umbrella of phenomenal transparency. The same is true for Gris’ work. Though the composition is biased towards a grid-work of planes, the painting also highlights the reflectance and transmittance of light through the various pieces of cut glass, which makes me wonder if it is as literal as it is phenomenal in transparency.

Though we read about Corbusier as one of the pioneers in transparency in architecture, I think that Kahn was also just as impressive. When I think about transparency, I tend to draw parallels to layering, and I think that both of these are means of providing an abundance of information in small chunks. Both these great architects had a beautiful way of portraying a story through their work, each level of transparency serving as a preview to the next. The idea of composition can be strengthened only by splitting the building into smaller well defined elements, that is, by making the building more transparent, both literally and phenomenally.

Learning and fine-tuning the tools of transparency in architecture is definitely one of my goals to achieve as an architect. The more I see the work of Kahn and Corbusier, the more awe-struck I am about their complex level of thought and deep understanding of architecture as a composition.