MOVING THROUGH TRANSPARENCY: An Undergraduate Thesis
BOOK I Ambiguity of the Order
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS: Contents
BOOK I: Ambiguity of the Order Moving Through Transparency Parti: Program as Limit Study: Modeling Program Study: A Transparent Order Parti: Punctured Thresholds Site: Washington, D.C. Ground Floor Plan Continuity of Thresholds Layered Stair Core Major Spaces within the Embassy Spatial Interactions within the Embassy: A Section Model The Consulate: a Section The Consulate: Punctured Core Study: Actor/Audience Conditions Study: Introverted Transparency A Line of Gaze The Ambassador’s Conference Room The Prayer Room Bibliography Dedication
BOOK II: Fluctuating Perception of Space _01 _02 _03 _04 _05 _06 _07 _08 _08 _09 _09
Moving Through Transparency Study: The Theater Box The Façade The Corridor Study: The Stair The Stair Bibliography Dedication
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Two orders vie for dominance. Each diagram represents an occupant’s possible perception of the organization of the architecture. At different moments, one order dominates the other.
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MOVING THROUGH TRANSPARENCY: Defining transparency as a mediator between opposing conditions in architecture
Fluctuating Perception of Space
Ambiguity of the Order
A Turkish Embassy
The purpose of this thesis is to see beyond the traditional definition of “transparency” and reveal its larger architectural implications. Until Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky’s article, “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal”, was published in 1964, transparency was considered to be only a material quality, secondary to form and structure; it was a way to bring in light. A building could invoke “feelings” of lightness or openness, but these were more general, subjective sensations, not a rigorous position on a transparent architecture. What Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky contend is that transparency is not just a material quality, but also “an inherent quality of organization.”
A transparent architectural order is similarly ambiguous, but not [necessarily] chaotic. A transparent order fluctuates, allowing
As a program, an embassy is uniquely posed
Traditionally, the word “transparent” carries connotations like “clear”, or “unconcealed”. But if we perceive two or more [objects/planes/volumes/ spaces] interacting with one another, and “each of them claims for itself the overlapped part” [Gyorgy Kepes] then their physical relation to each other becomes ambiguous. Phenomenal transparency challenges how a viewer perceives a space, which is based on how the viewer interprets the physical relation of a space relative to the elements (such as planes or volumes) that are within, behind, in front of, and next to it. If transparency is the simultaneous perception of the foreground and the background, “without optical destruction of each other” [Kepes], then the relation between the elements is open to interpretation. Transparency creates a condition wherein several spatial orders are possible. If one crucial aspect within the larger definition of architecture is that architecture is the ordered interaction of spaces with one another, then transparency can move from being a secondary consideration to being the governing principle behind the decisions (at all scales) that organize an entire building.
two or more orders to occupy one space. At different points, one order may dominate the other, resulting in a moment of clarity that allows an occupant to feel as though they understand the order. But moving onwards, perception shifts, re-defining the order of the whole. It is the necessary movement of the viewing observer that activates this ambiguity. The product of this transparent organization is not a wholly exposed, “open” building, but a series of layers and volumes that simultaneously obscure and reveal, preventing a single interpretation of the whole. Careful sequencing of how occupants traverse these layered spaces, both at the detail [material] scale and spatial [order] scale, allows them to catch images only partially indicative of the formal composition. In this way, the architecture will satisfy the dual conditions of [public/private] [secure/open] [inside/outside]
to explore the dual nature of transparency - it must be open and unconcealed to the public,
as fitting a representative of its country. But it must also house programs that require a very high level of security, places that are extremely private. Choosing a country to represent, instead of designing a building for “any country”, added another useful limit. The purpose of designing for a specific country was not to create a direct representation, but to use certain cultural aspects that would be interesting to explore within the thesis. Turkey, with its history of screens and certain religious requirements, was an ideal candidate. Four spaces within the whole represent the publicto-private spectrum: the Consulate the Stair the Prayer Room the Ambassador’s Conference Room Their positioning and relation to one another are the shifting focal points around which the building is composed.
Limited to only a material quality, transparency is unable to achieve these opposing desires. Material transparency may create public, open spaces from which a person may observe their surroundings, but it sacrifices privacy and security. As well, while we like to observe the world around us, we do not always like to be watched in turn. This thesis investigates the ambiguous nature of transparency, and seeks to demonstrate that transparency as a method of organization can primarily and successfully mediate the [public] and [private].
CATHERINE M. EARLEY Undergraduate Thesis: Spring 2013 Advisor: Hilary Bryon
Parti: Program as Limit
program at the scale of a nation
program at the scale of the individual
These categories are subdivided into three levels of security, with [events] and [cultural display] being the most public functions, and [refuge] and [negotiations] being the most private.
refuge
restaurant/cafe
negotiations
archives events cult. display
consulate
This diagram breaks down the many functions of an embassy into two categories:
conference
offices
how much or how little they interact, when they interact, where they interact, and why they interact.
symbol
private quarters
One way of demonstrating the possibilities of a transparent architectural order is determining how well it works as a mode by which to mediate [the public] and [the private]. The program gives the thesis a programmatic range of pubic-private upon which to build. Certain semi-private volumes begin to create threshold spaces between the wholly public and wholly private. Assigning names to the volumes, names that were reasonable to the program of “embassy�, allowed further explorations in a spectrum of transparencies. By giving space a name, the program does not just determine whether or not two spaces can interact at all; it determines:
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The layers of the diagram, demonstrating the thresholds of [public] and [private], are present in the initial section sketches for the embassy. The interaction of spaces, based on their designated privacy and the different types of threshold created by these interactions, was a constant regard through the ongoing iterations of the project. Above, a study model shifts from paper into spatial reality.
STUDY: Modeling Program
A physical exploration of how programatic volumes might interact
This model is not a model of a building form, but a model of how the occupants of the building might move through the spaces. The thought process behind the model assumes that every person has a destination, be it [consulate] [offices] or [conference]. But, what is a person allowed to experience along their path? What boundaries do they cross? What can they only glimpse? And, what will be the next destination? This model attempts to build paths to inform an underlying organization. These paths do not divide space - they are its spatial interactions.
sidewalk
events
cultural display
offices
events
outdoor space
conferences
entrance
negotiations
cultural display
program at the scale of the individual
offices
cultural display
program at the scale of a nation
negotiations
consulate outdoor space
In this initial study, the highly private function of [negotiations] was below ground an located next to [events], because one would simply not be used while the other was active. The second floor of [events] was placed next to [cultural display], as both could function at the same time, and [display] would be a part of [events]. At the ground level, the embassy begins to function at a more individual scale.
offices
archives
entrance
refuge
offices
restaurant
offices
offices
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offices private quarters
[display] is adjacent to [consulate] so as to make the act of waiting in line (expected at the consulate) less tedious. [events] act as a visual buffer between the public consulate and the private conferences. The workers of the consulate enter on the second story, crossing over the public entrance. [Refuge] was a label given to the Prayer Room, a culturally significant room within the embassy, meant as a peaceful place of contemplation and thought for both the people working at the embassy and visiting officials.
STUDY: A Transparent Order Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein de Monzie at Garches
The quality of transparency at the Villa Stein is not due to the glass planes. It is due to Le Corbusier’s presentation of the building’s layers in the elevation’s composition. The front view becomes the datum - the plane to which all the other layers of the building relate. For instance, the ground floor is recessed, while the entry “stage” is in the fore. The windows are simply another layer in the composition, a suggested large plane of glass hung beyond the foreground.
The implication is that Garches is a series of layers, extending perhaps infinitely, and that the occupiable space exists between those layers. The large opening cut into the façade gives the viewers the sense that they are being allowed to see the underlying organization. The viewer is able to “read” the façade and seemingly draw reasonable conclusions about the interior organization of the villa. In this way, they are able to “see-through” the building. This is a conceptual transparency, a transparency that engages the mind.
However, the windows along the North elevation suggest that the organization of the interior is horizontal, with open floor plans extending back from the glass bands. This contradicts the shallow vertical spaces that the South elevation indicates. Upon entering the villa, the viewer’s original
interpretation of the interior, however reasonable, is again changed. Instead of vertical planes determining the direction of the space, internal volumes encroach on the central area, creating a plan that runs parallel to the façade.
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The Villa Stein is an exercise in spatial deceit. The house is divided into both horizontal and vertical layers, its directionality changing as different planes resolve to the fore. For the occupant, the Villa Stein fluctuates, its real order only legible through a composite of views.
images of Villa Stein interior: Giedion, S.
Parti: Punctured Thresholds The ground floor
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The parti of the Turkish Embassy & Consulate is simple. There are four east-west axes that act as thresholds. Movement and views through these thresholds are facilitated by punctures determined by corridors evenly arrayed and pointing southwest, towards Mecca. A central core, also at an angle, is punctured in turn by a horizontal view, so at different moments, a different directionality surfaces within the architecture.
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Threshold I [the Faรงade]: Visitors pass through a single large puncture in the faรงade, entering on the angled axis. They are confronted with two options - they may go to the right to the consulate, or pass through a lower level of security to get to the exhibition space and cafe.
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2 Threshold II [Security]: Passing through a second threshold into the consulate, a visitor feels compressed as he waits to pass through the initial security level. However, he then emerges into a double - height space, relieving the compression as he clears security and reaches the consulate. If visitors need to go to the second floor, the stair turns them to go back through this security threshold before reaching any offices.
Punctured Core [the Stair]: The central core divides the public exhibit space from the consulate so that there can be a range of security levels on a single floor. The major horizontal puncture in the central core is made by the main stair, which is used by both the people in the exhibit space and the people in the consulate. The public can pass straight through this punctured opening to the exhibit space, but they cannot go back through.
3 Threshold III [Boundary]: This threshold obscures views from the interior to the back courtyard, which is the entrance for embassy officials.
Site: Washington, D.C.
Relevant Landmarks & Orienting Structures
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Naval Observatory
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ADAMS MORGAN
EMBASSY ROW
16th Street
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Sheridan Circle Dupont Circle
Logan Circle
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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
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Thomas Circle
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Washington Circle K Street Pen
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GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
embassy locations
Convention Center
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M Street
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White House
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Union Station
[satellite image] Pen
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main streets orienting nodes
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14th Street
But more crucial was its proximity to both Georgetown University and George Washington University. This is a neighborhood that has a local, public presence and the embassy’s location there emphasizes its use as a building for public engagement as well as its private professional functions.
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A site was chosen at the intersection of M Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the most important streets in the nation. It is close to the orienting node of Washington Circle, around which several embassies are already built.
NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
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In this way, the two opposing conditions of [public] and [private] are brought into play by the site.
SIDWELL FRIENDS Massachusetts Ave
Washington, D.C. has a number of neighborhoods where a multitude of embassies are located, such as Embassy Row on Massachusetts Ave. It was important that the Turkish Embassy be located around other embassies, for safety and prestige reasons, but it was also necessary that the site be in a place convenient for the public. Its public function, such as a cafe and exhibit space, would not be best utilized in a wholly diplomatic district.
Natl. Monument WWII Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
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The Capital
NATIONAL MALL
orienting buildings R
relevant regions/neighborhoods
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Jefferson Memorial
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Site:
Pennsylvania Ave & 26th St, Washington D.C.
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Ground Floor Plan
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The ground floor of the embassy and the second floor are where the [public] and the [private] functions of the embassy intermingle. The bottom floor holds the wholly public functions of [restaurant] and [exhibit], while, by the third floor, the embassy has transitioned to offices, meeting rooms, and other solely private functions.
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ENTRY LOBBY SPACE SECURITY OFFICE: CONSULATE EXHIBIT / EVENT SPACE CAFE WC / UTILITIES PARKING EGRESS
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Continuity of Thresholds Through the Embassy
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Layered Stair Core
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Major Spaces within the Embassy
These three rooms, along with the Stair, demonstrate the range of privacy, and therefore transparency, required in the embassy.
the Consulate
the Prayer Room
the Ambassador’s Conference Room
The Consulate is a room for the public, though it comes into contact with more private areas of the embassy, such as the offices that support the consulate.
The Prayer Room is place of [refuge] for the officials and people who work in the embassy. It is a very private space away from the public sphere of the embassy, but it is still a public space amongst the private functions.
The Ambassador’s Conference Room is, functionally, the most private of spaces. It is not considered accessible to most people, even those allowed within the private sphere of the embassy
Spatial Interactions Within the Embassy: A Section Model A section through the major functions of the embassy
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The Consulate: A Section
Once visitors pass through Threshold I [the Facade], they are confronted with the second threshold. Here a visitor may decide to go left or right, depending on their purpose. The general populace, wishing perhaps to see the exhibit spaces, move to the left and pass the large, double-height space of the cafe (located on the floor below) as they go through Threshold II [Security]. But those wishing to get into the higher security of the consulate move to the right, passing through a tightly compressed “screen” of security checkpoints. However, this pressure is relieved by the doubleheight volume of the Consulate’s lobby space just beyond. Here visitors again have two options, depending on their purpose. The program of consulate is divided into two parts, over two floors. A visitor may simply need to pick up or drop off paper work, which is handled on the first floor. After that quick exchange, they exit through the Punctured Core into an exhibit space. Should the visitor’s case require a more in depth consultation with an embassy official, he will wait in the lobby space until he is called to the second floor. The Stair turns the visitor around so that he must pass back through Threshold II before entering this portion of the Consulate’s offices, where a higher level of security is maintained.
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The Consulate: Punctured Core
A perception shift occurs in the lobby space of the Consulate
Threshold II gives visitors a rhythm to expect as they move through the embassy. So far, there is a discernible order: programed space is contained within these large walls that divide the building along the East-West Axis, while waiting space is contained in the moments between the thresholds. The dense active spaces form the open inactive spaces that are a release from the compression. Once they pass through the Security threshold, they are expecting Threshold III to continue the rhythm that has been set up. They do not expect the Stair. The Stair is an active space occupying what was anticipated to be a passive space. Until now, occupants have been moving through the thresholds via punctures that are not perpendicular to the East-West axis. That oblique axis now becomes the mass instead of the void. The center of activity has shifted perceptibly from the thresholds to this angled core.
The occupants realize that perhaps their movement denotes the real directionality of the embassy along the oblique. A new order to the architecture has come forward. But now they must puncture this core along the East-West axis, and the original direction of the building is emphasized once more. Yet, now that second order has been made transparent, it will continue to remain in the occupants’ mind, hovering undisturbed in the background.
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Study: Actor/Audience Conditions
A series of models were used to abstract and categorize dual spatial conditions that arise in the architecture of display
Allowing both occupants and outsiders to observe the inner movement of people through a building’s space gives the observer the impression that the building is transparent. The dual nature of transparency, however, means that the observer is just as likely to be the observed, which can carry an unpleasant sense of exposure. In the Garnier Opera House in Paris, people upon the grand stair can see the people along the arcades, and vice versa - but only those on the grand stair feel that they are on display. Certain
spatial conditions arise in architecture that can mediate the public and private boundary without simply dividing them opaquely. Through a careful sequencing of these spatial interactions, architecture can give an occupant this sense of transparency without completely revealing its inner order. image of Garnier Opera House: Mead, C.C. Garnier Opera House, Paris
light space/dark space
The MĂźller House, Prague, by A.Loos
low space/high space
active space/passive space
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Study: Introverted Transparency Adolf Loos’s Müller House
“I do not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces...For me, there are only contiguous, continual spaces...storeys merge and spaces relate to each other.” –Adolf Loos
Upon moving through the Müller house, the occupant [actor] is constantly turned to look back at the space he has just passed through. In this
way, views are directed not towards the outside or the destination space, but inwardly.
“Raumplan” literally means “space plan” and
it is the method by which Loos organized many of his buildings. Instead of thinking in plan, Loos thought of his spaces more as cubes interacting with one another. His process, therefore, did not involve dividing space but merging and growing space. Moving from one space to the other is a highly choreographed display and an integral part of the architecture.
However, in certain rooms within the house, the occupant shifts from “actor” to “audience”. While not necessarily at the center of the house (in the Moller house, the “theater box” is actually cantilevered outside the overall volume), some spaces are defined so that the occupant can “see through” the house and gather a mental image of the whole organization. Someone in this space can see who is approaching, but the opposite is not possible. The result is not necessarily theatrical, but it is certaintly voyeuristic.
The Müller House, sketch of section & plan
low space/high space
active space/passive space
low space/high space
A Line of Gaze
The major spaces of the embassy are located towards the center of the building, branching off of the Stair. Instead of being isolated, the Ambassador’s Conference Room, the Prayer Room, and the Consulate interact with the screen condition provided by the angled core. The density of all the volumes together, broken only by shallow spaces to allow movement between, creates a visual haze, and a mental barrier for those unfamiliar with the interior. Were each of the spaces isolated (often a tool for security), their presence as an important place would become obvious. Together, they hide within the whole, defined only by the oblique lines of order emanating from the core. In the image to the right, a momentary glimpse is allowed and the Prayer Room and the Conference Room can be seen. The Prayer Room is a space for the people who work within the embassy to gather, and therefore has a more public function within the private sphere; a small view of its interior is permitted. The interior of the highly private Conference Room, placed a little above the Prayer Room, remains unknown.
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The Ambassador’s Conference Room
The Ambassador’s Conference Room must be the most private and secure room of the embassy. However, on a national scale, the conversations and negotiations that occur within the confines of a country’s embassy can greatly affect its populace. As a concept, the Conference Room straddles the line between what should be public and what should be private. The Conference Room is placed adjacent and parallel to the Stair Core, taking advantage its screen condition. While occupants on the floor below may look up and see the volume of the Conference Room, the narrow space between it and the Stair Core makes it impossible to stand back for a better view of the space contained within. The walls of the conference room are comprised of two membranes - glass fins on steel structural members guard an inner wall of screen printed glass. Yet, where the Conference Room penetrates the Prayer Room, the fins stop, and ones view within becomes less obstructed.
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The Prayer Room
In a traditional Muslim room of prayer, the devotees must face Mecca as they pray and bow. A mosque is usually oriented towards Mecca, but the occupants do not all just face a large wall; there is a niche, the mihrab, within the Mecca-facing wall, the qibla, towards which the devotees all direct their prayers. Playing with similar ideas of subtraction and using the layering and screening embedded with the tectonics of the Embassy, a small rectangle has been removed from the inner layer of wall containing the Prayer Room. As the room is positioned behind the Faรงade, outside light filters in and creates a shrine of light within the wall. The Prayer Room responds to the needs of the function and incorporates it into the architectural exploration of transparency.
In the adjacent image, one can see the Conference Room as it penetrates the space of the Prayer Room.
Why is one highly private function allowed to so interact with a more public function? Programmatically, the Prayer Room has an interesting feature - it is only occupied at certain, specific times of the day. The Conference Room would not be used during those periods for negotiations, as the officials would be at prayer. At first glance, one would not think the two should interact at all, but, in fact, they are quite suited to one another.
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Bibliography
Base Text
Follow-Up Texts
Rowe, Colin, and Robert Slutzky. “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal.” Perspecta, Vol. 8. (1963): 45-54.
Atelier Bow-Wow, Terunobu Fujimori, Washida Menruro, Yoshikazu Nango, and Enrique Walker. Behaviorology. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2010. Colomina, Beatriz. “The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism.” Sexuality and Space. 4th Edition. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. 73-128. Print. Giedion, Sigfried. Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcrete. 1st ed edition. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1996. Print. Loos, Adolf, and Le Corbusier. Raumplan vs. Plan Libre: Adolf Loof and Le Corbusier, 1919 - 1930. Ed. Max Risselada and Beatriz Colomina. New York: Rizzoli, 1988. Mead, Christopher Curtis. Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera: Architectural Empathy and the Renaissance of French Classicism. New York: The Architectural History Foundation; Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.
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Dedication
I thank my family, friends, and professors, all of whose respect I cherish and who make me strive towards a better self. My profoundest gratitude in seeing me through the most interesting period of my life...so far.
CONTACT: Catherine M. Earley
c.earley13@gmail.com
410.504.9631
B.Arch. Virginia Tech CAUS