| Title |
The Analysis on Colin Rowe`s "Phenomenal Transparency" |
| Abstract |
In 1963, Colin Rowe published an article entitled "Transparency : Literal and Phenomenal," which had critical influence on contemporary architecture. In it he attempted to refine and develop the concept of phenomenal transparency in order to describe a particular quality inherent in certain systems of architectural organization that are distinct from certain physical properties of a material such as glass.Rowe's "phenomenal transparency", however, is not a new aspect of transparency but a mere perceptual explanation of overlapped opaque planes. Rather, his phenomenal transparency concept should be understtood as the composition of overlapped planes in a stratified space. His concept of phenomenal transparency describes not only the compositional methods by frontally aligned real planes and their imaginary projection into the layering of space, but also the successive reading of stratified structure on the line of movement including the problems of specific viewpoints. Thus, his concept of phenomenal transparency has to be re-defined as the structure of relationships, in which the relations between the surface level and the next layered spaces with their boundary planes are successively repeated or alternate. |