Transparency

by Colin Rowe

Transparency is a key text and required reading for all students of modern architecture. As members of the 1950s group known as the "Texas Rangers", Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky tested new methods for teaching and developing architectural design skills. Through their exploration of the common basis of modern art and architecture they identified and elaborated on the concept of transparency as a fundamental principle of spatial organisation, beyond the curtain wall. Their essay titled Transparency, first published in 1964, provided the theoretical and didactical fundament, exemplified and illustrated by 2 of Le Corbusier's buildings.

Genres: Architecture

119 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published March 19, 1993

About the author

Colin Rowe was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician, and teacher; acknowledged as a major intellectual influence on world architecture and urbanism in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, particularly in the fields of city planning, regeneration, and urban design. During his life he taught briefly at the University of Texas at Austin and, for one year, at the University of Cambridge in England. For the majority of his life he taught as a Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In 1995 he was awarded the Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the professional group's highest honor.

Reviews

[Nalanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of runaround for a pretty simple concept; typical of the era of architectural theory--making a bang out of a whimper. Nonetheless, the concept itself is useful and sound IMO, once you actually realize what they're getting at.

[Pablo Lopes · Rating 4 out of 5]

'It demonstrates the virtues of a transparent form-organization: multiple readings, complexity in unity, ambiguity and clarity, involvement of the user who choses and connects through participation, tangible meaning in terms of geometry'

[wallpi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and Deep

[Matcha Junky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiny good point that got blown out of proportion with hard to read gate keeping language. No wonder why the public hate modernist architect.

[Mafruha Rashid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the commentary part by Bernard Hoesli more. The phenomenology of Coline Rowe's writing became clearer by his analysis on Corbusier's works.