Basic HTML Version
47
As others have stated, light is paradoxically one
of the essential materials of architecture. The
interpenetration of interior and exterior is one
of its dominant themes. Reflected light, whether
or not it involved water, was one of the great
themes of baroque and Arab architecture. In
the nineteenth century, interior passageways
in Milan, Brussels and Paris were flooded with
light.
1
A remarkable examination of Victor Horta’s
'Architectonographie' by the architects from Sint-
Lukasarchief shows the importance of the study of
light throughout Horta’s oeuvre.
2
A wide variety of modernist works, whether by Frank
Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or Richard
Neutra, display a desire for communion or fusion
with nature or the city. One of the major reasons for
Le Corbusier’s pilotis was to prevent buildings from
blocking both circulation and sight. And yet, according
to Philippe Samyn, it is as though the goal of contem-
porary architecture and certain building materials is to
deprive people of their natural sensitivity and sense
of perception. Three examples of this – related to
sight – will suffice. First, the shift from sheet glass to
float glass, and the use of various oxides to produce
insulated glazing, have resulted in green-tinted instead
of transparent windows. This in turn has meant a sharp
decrease in the Colour Rendering Index. In addition, the
move from classic incandescent to fluorescent lighting
has brought the index down from 98 per cent to around
92 per cent (and even as low as 82 per cent). The result
is a loss in correct colour perception. When it comes to
the calibration of colours used in construction, everyone
knows that despite praiseworthy standardisation efforts
in this area, only an in situ test can correct computer-
generated colours. All of this – and other observations
too numerous to list here – explains Philippe Samyn's
research and efforts to recreate crystal-clear float
windows, to use fluorescent lights that correctly render
colours and to employ coatings that are particularly
suited for reflecting colours without deformation (such
as the pure grey mentioned in Chapter 6). Little wonder
that these pages are filled with discussions of natural
light, and that the ensuing anthology starts and finishes
with African projects – designs for people who have not
yet been distorted by excess production nor had their
senses atrophied.
During the annual Heritage Days festival in September
2007, the public was able to visit the PetroFina can-
teen, designed by Philippe Samyn in 1994, in the
rue Guimard, Brussels
(01-313)
. Situated in a former
townhouse, a volume bathed in light occupies the
interior courtyard in the form of a glass roof supported
by small, uncomplicated metallic trusses, positioned on
slanting posts attached to the adjoining wall. Nothing
could be simpler than this natural and non-aggressive
extension of the very codified neoclassical architecture
of the place. Philippe Samyn often invokes the play of
semi-transparency in his works. This is true not only in
the Design Board offices
(01-147)
and the Boulanger
office building
(01-200)
, but also – and in a more radi-
cal fashion – under the cover of the tents at Venafro
(01-222)
and Wanlin
(01-314)
, or the large walls of the
Erasme metro station
(01-283)
, the service stations at
Orival
(01-365)
and Houten in the Netherlands
(01-363)
.
These allow one to ‘see without being seen’ and also
provide, in their interiors, a reassuring feeling of safety
and intimacy. A play of reflections can also be seen in
the treatment of walkways in the Michel-Ange building
(01-260)
, discussed in Chapter 3, in the projects for the
balcony for Studio 4 of the Flagey building
(01-251)
, as
well as in Philippe Samyn’s own offices
(01-265)
, in
which the splayed surfaces surrounding the windows
reflect the light, as does the central ornamental pond.
3
CHAPTER 8
LIGHT, TRANSPARENCY,
INTIMACY, COLOUR
This tool, developed by Philippe
Samyn, allows for comparison
of fluorescent light sources
and indicates both light
temperatures and output indices
for different colours.
Patchwork of pure greys