Through the glass starkly
Swamping a building with natural light can create more problems than it solves
SOMETHING should be said and done, or there will be no future for architecture,’ complained Mies van der Rohe’s disgruntled client Dr Edith Farnsworth about the see-through Illinois house he designed for her in the 1940s. If only her problems had been limited to the challenges of cosying up in a giant glass box; the project was also significantly over budget, the rooms expensive to heat and, at night, they became a popular evening hang out for both mosquitoes and moths. She took her grumbles to court.
It’s hard to understand the Modernist desire to flood an interior with natural light, particularly when the benefits of floor-to-ceiling windows can create more problems they solve; not least how you achieve privacy in highdensity areas (acres of curtains? Blinds? Shutters? A Dryrobe in the bathroom?). Then there’s the problem that sunglasses are sometimes required inside on a sunny day, giving you the mournful look of a fashion journalist in the front row. These are tiresome little details that Modernist architects prefer to overlook.
Of course, Sir John Soane knew better; it’s hard to guess how he would have responded to the possibilities created by the Bicheroux technique of continuous rolled plate-glass production in the 1920s. Almost a century before, the relative scarcity of natural light in buildings was, for Soane, the mother of invention. One of his many virtuoso achievements was what he called ‘lumière mystérieuse’, the effect he achieved by juggling natural illumination with shade to model a space with chiaroscuro with the help of top lighting, mirrors and coloured glass.
One suspects that Soane might have responded better to the infinite possibilities of electric lighting married with discrete sources of natural illumination to create a harmonious balance. The benefit of electric light isn’t only about practicality, but also the ability to dictate the mood of a room. In recent years, the need to make lights aesthetically pleasing has led a remarkable renaissance in decorative techniques, too, employing creativity and craftsmanship that might have fallen by the wayside had it not been for Thomas Edison’s light-bulb moment. For evidence, you only need to look at the designs— classic, contemporary and whimsical —dreamt up over the past 25 years by Vaughan, Hector Finch, Jamb, Charles Edwards and Porta Romana.
What Modernist architects must recognise is that when most of us want immersion in daylight, we are very happy to take the dog for a long walk.
Expensive to heat, it became a popular evening hang out for moths