through the contrivance of fenestration with a view to external effects only;—that is, through unimaginative planning. Experimental as much of his work was, Wren nearly always succeeded in bringing about some miracle of loveliness through the disposition of his windows in relation to internal elements. It is in this sense that we may interpret Lady Dilke’s most happy phrase, “the calculated effects of architecture.”
The extending use of artificial light, even artificial daylight, tends to make us careless in these matters. The ideal of even distribution of light
is right enough in the departmental store, the school, the factory, but this is not the subject under consideration. It is not light to reveal objects seen in the hand, but light to reveal the place as a whole that is under investigation. Picture galleries and museums are places where the objects within the rooms exceed in interest the rooms themselves and some uncomfortable, rich men’s houses are like that. In churches and in most houses, however, interiors exist more independently. But even in museums efficiency is not incompatible with a qualitative arrangement, as well as a quantitative distribution, of light. The
deadly dullness and inefficiency of the lighting of the Louvre galleries is often cited as an argument for an equal dullness with efficiency. In Messel’s work at the museum in Stuttgart there is efficiency without dullness and variety of lighting to suit variety of objects is contrived with a view to fine general effects. His methods are worthy of those sincerer forms of flattery which constitute so large a part of the technique of architecture throughout North America. He knew well that the “delight of the eye,” to say nothing of its common comfort, when functioning needs
backgrounds of qualified shade and on occasion gloom.
Now considering a window as a source of light; —like any other source the intensity of light derived from it falling on objects depends in an acute ratio upon the distance. But the light diffused from a large window veiled with muslin is exquisite in one way, while the definition derived from a small clear opening of equal total candle power may be exquisite likewise, but quite differently; each has its uses, its potentialities for magic.
The tricks of interior lighting habitual to the
Main Committee Room, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Harlem
The extending use of artificial light, even artificial daylight, tends to make us careless in these matters. The ideal of even distribution of light
is right enough in the departmental store, the school, the factory, but this is not the subject under consideration. It is not light to reveal objects seen in the hand, but light to reveal the place as a whole that is under investigation. Picture galleries and museums are places where the objects within the rooms exceed in interest the rooms themselves and some uncomfortable, rich men’s houses are like that. In churches and in most houses, however, interiors exist more independently. But even in museums efficiency is not incompatible with a qualitative arrangement, as well as a quantitative distribution, of light. The
deadly dullness and inefficiency of the lighting of the Louvre galleries is often cited as an argument for an equal dullness with efficiency. In Messel’s work at the museum in Stuttgart there is efficiency without dullness and variety of lighting to suit variety of objects is contrived with a view to fine general effects. His methods are worthy of those sincerer forms of flattery which constitute so large a part of the technique of architecture throughout North America. He knew well that the “delight of the eye,” to say nothing of its common comfort, when functioning needs
backgrounds of qualified shade and on occasion gloom.
Now considering a window as a source of light; —like any other source the intensity of light derived from it falling on objects depends in an acute ratio upon the distance. But the light diffused from a large window veiled with muslin is exquisite in one way, while the definition derived from a small clear opening of equal total candle power may be exquisite likewise, but quite differently; each has its uses, its potentialities for magic.
The tricks of interior lighting habitual to the
Main Committee Room, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Harlem