ETSAB

MBArch / Contemporary Project

Oscar Pita Wu

Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal

Colin Rowe (with Robert Slutzky)
As the title of the chapter suggest, the text analyzed is complex since it involves a comparison
and differentiation between a literal and straightforward definition along with a phenomenal
situation that involves perception. As we know, perception is subjective to each individual and
could lead to different interpretations. The complexity of the subject aforementioned is
backed up by the fact that at least three comparisons between cubist and post-cubist
paintings are needed in the text to clarify the idea to the reader.

It is intended to prove that even though “by the dictionary definition the quality or state of being
transparent is a material condition”1, transparency could as well have a more complex
definition that also has to do with “a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations”2. To
do so, first three pairs of cubist paintings (by Braque, Picasso, Delaunay, Gris, Moholy and
Leger) are compared to be used as examples. Even though many of these paintings belonged
to the same period and style, the approach responded to the personal interest of each artist.
Some examples may seem confusing at first as it is the case of the Clarinet Player of Picasso
and The Portuguese of Braque but the idea becomes more evident in the comparison
between Moholy’s La Sarraz and Leger’s Three Faces.

Moholy, La Sarraz, 1930 Leger, Three Faces, 1926

In both cases the abstraction is present but while in La Sarraz the transparency limits itself to
the physical material qualities of shapes that allow the clear view of the elements behind
them, in Three Faces the objects are represented as opaque in a superposition that is both
intriguing and ambiguous. It is also unclear what objects are in the front and which ones are
behind and it is by intuition that one can develop multiple personal interpretations.

1
Rowe, Colin, and Robert Slutzky. “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal.” The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa,
and Other Essays, MIT Press, 1987, p. 160.
2
Ibid, p. 161.
With this example it becomes clearer that “literal transparency […] tends to be associated […] as
a translucent object in a deep, naturalistic space; while phenomenal transparency seems to be
found when a painter seeks the articulated presentation of frontally aligned objects in a shallow,
abstracted space”.3 As complex as this topic is in painting, it acquires a new dimension in
architecture where depth and spaces are not suggested but implied. As Rowe suggests, this
ambiguity and complexity should be sought for in architecture to enrich the experience of
the user. Therefore, when projecting architecture, the transparency shouldn’t be achieved
only by the use of transparent materials by their physical properties such as glass, screens
and meshes but together with the superposition of planes and overlapping of volumes, the
result could bring new dimensions to an experience that would otherwise rely only on our
visual perception.

Translating the concept to architecture, the author uses Villa Stein from Le Corbusier as an
example of phenomenal transparency against Gropius’s Bauhaus building as a clear example
of literal transparency that leaves little to the viewer’s imagination. With this example one
understands that in phenomenal transparency, the physical properties of materials aren’t as
relevant and it is actually the disposition of planes and volumes in different depths that allow
us to reconfigure space and figures to create a mental image of the elements that don’t
appear at first sight.

Villa Stein, Garches, 1926 Villa Stein, Garches, 1926 Signs of Evening, 1926

The richest attribute of phenomenal transparency is that it involves intuition and plays with
our subconscious suggesting different possibilities we could expect to find in the spaces and
areas that aren’t directly visible. In this way, the element of surprise is always in play. Because
if in Villa Stein a phenomenal transparent lecture of the facade could suggest us what we
could find behind it, the floor plan reveals an un-apparent complexity. In this way we could
also relate this experience to surrealism. Coincidently the painting “Signs of Evening” by Rene
Magritte, also from 1926, portraits the way our minds try to reconfigure an image from the
context we are seeing but that mental image doesn’t imply that necessarily you will find that
exact situation. In that aspect, phenomenal transparency can bring a lot to architectural
experience.

3
Ibid. P. 166
Virtual spatial diagram, 21st Century Art Museum, Kanazawa, SANAA, 2004 / (personal interpretation)

With a clearer concept of what each kind of transparency both literal and phenomenal mean,
we can find a situation in the 21st Century Museum in Kanazawa by the Japanese architecture
firm Sanaa where both kinds are present and work together trying to achieve a completely
diaphanous experience; a characteristic always sought by the mentioned studio. The
overlapping volumes that rise over the roof level suggest a spatial configuration of the interior
that cannot be easily deduced visually on ground level from the exterior even though a literal
transparent element like glass is used because of the reflections and the change in intensity
of light between the interior and exterior. This curious contradiction gives credit to the
phenomenal transparency as in the particular conditions of this picture, provide a clearer
vision of space than the literal transparency itself.

Parrish Art Museum, NY, Herzog & DeMeuron, 2012 Baron House, Skane, Sweden, John Pawson, 2005

As ambiguous a concept it is, the existence of phenomenal transparency is relevant in

architecture as it involves the human psyche making the experience richer. Another condition
to consider in phenomenal transparency is its relativity. As different individuals we have
different ways of perceiving things. Atmospherical and physical conditions also come into
play that could alter the phenomena in our perception. The movement across space and time
can also alter our perception and therefore the intensity of phenomenal transparency we can
assume. This relativity is seen in the examples of the Parrish Art Museum by Herzog &
DeMeuron and Baron House by John Pawson. With the correct scale and light conditions,
there is a phenomenal transparency that make the buildings disappear in the landscape as
opaque their materials could be. We can therefore conclude that, a building could be totally
opaque in materiality still much transparent in our perception.