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The transparency of the walls is not only a problem during day it is emphasized
during night. The house creates a very questionable visual privacy. Normally a person
would limit other's view of oneself. Inherent in human behavior is the tendency to avoid
situations in which one can be watched without being aware of who is watching. Visual
privacy can be achieved through the use of furnishings, partitions or walls. In this case the
glass house lacks none of the latter.
Although it created much dispute at first with the idea of maintaining transparency
and visual connection to the estate after dark; he was so keen on the pleasure of being in the
risk of being seen by someone. So as supposed to creating coverage for privacy, he together
with Richard Kelly devised the Glass House to be a stage-like setting.
To understand the development of Glass House’s lights one must know first the
expanse of what lighting is during the era of the Glass House.
During this era artificial lighting had reached a more aesthetic integration to an
architectural space. Lighting for homes began to receive increasing attention due to popular
press like the New York Times, Saturday Evening Post, Vogue, House and Garden, and
Flair; they deemed electrical lighting as an aspect of home decoration rather than just
technology or utility. In one of Kelly’s books he divided the primary roles of lighting into
three: Attraction, Comfort, and Personality. Attraction is using light for creation of interest;
to emphasize the good important features of the home. Comfort is the utilitarian aspect of
lighting which we used for sewing, writing, reading, etc. Personality is truly the art of
lighting, creating an individual character as set by the client.
Following these principles, Johnson and Kelly pushed for the use of artificial lighting
to create specific visual environments that expressed the personality of Johnson. Primary
considerations where given to the transparency of the glass walls, avoiding the glare
artificial lights create, and the mirroring effects interior lights create at night. To achieve
that, Kelly programmed exterior lights inset within the cornices at regular intervals
pointing downward and flood lights buried in the trenches surrounding the house, just
outside the walls directing beams of light up to the interior buried in a trench surrounding
the house, just outside the glass walls, directed strong beams of light up onto the interior
ceiling providing soft diffused illumination for the principal and functional lighting of the
interior. Additionally each corner of the house is lit by canister lights
Guralnick, M. (2014, December 8). 14 Lessons in Minimalism from the Glass House. Retrieved
from Utilitarian Glamour: http://www.remodelista.com/posts/lessons-in-
minimalism-from-the-glass-house-by-philip-johnson-new-canaan-connecticut/
Hawthorne, C. (2012, August 31). Architect Philip Johnson's Glass House. Retrieved from
Architectural Digest: http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/architect-philip-
johnson-glass-house-modernism-article
Perez, A., & Perez, A. (2010, May 17). AD Classics: The Glass House/ Philip Johnson.
Retrieved from ArchDaily: http://www.archdaily.com/60259/ad-classics-the-glass-
house-philip-johnson