Colin Rowe’s and Robert Slutzky’s “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal” asserts that architectural elements can be viewed equally from more than one point of view. To support their claim they cite buildings from influential architects that display the duality of space, planes and structure. The author’s purpose was to communicate the possible contrasting understandings of transparency in terms of it’s literal and phenomenal realities in order to add depth to a once simplified concept of design. Given the technical writing in the article the intended audience are architectural professionals, scholars and art theorists.

Daniel Naegele’s review of Colin Rowe’s “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays” explains that Rowe’s essays provide conditions where ideas and buildings can be constantly questioned and developed. To support his claim Naegele quotes Rowe’s work and extracts the opposing words he uses to describe, compare and contrast different architectural situations. The author’s purpose was to explain how Rowe chooses to manipulate his vocabulary to create an ambiguous view in order to constantly raise questions that improve and evolve the architecture field. Given the technical writing in the article the intended audience are architectural professionals, scholars and art theorists.

Bibliography

Naegele’s, Daniel, reviewer. “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays” [Review of the book “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays”]. Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 2002, pp.81-84

Rowe, Colin, Robert Slutzky. “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal” MIT Press Perspecta, Vol. 8 (1963), pp. 45-54

Book Review by Daniel Naegele