ABSTRACT
Due to its inherent relationship with the perception of manipulated light, the condition of translucency in architecture is often associated with primarily subjective aims: the creation of spectacle, affect, or atmosphere. But translucency also has the potential to address practical issues of function and technical performance in buildings of certain usage which may require, for instance, specific lighting conditions or degrees of privacy or publicity. The incorporation of translucent materials in the design of a building skin may therefore be related to program as much as (if not to the exclusion of) spectacle or aesthetic expression, phenomena which become by-products of the main intent. In these types of buildings, which are the focus of this chapter, the enclosure system may be read as an embodiment, or crystallization, of rational pro-grammatic concerns, reflecting the fundamental importance of light in the activities taking place within and often accompanied by a prioritization of materiality and performance over form.
