the New York Botanical Garden, but 
would we really want to live in a domed 
New York or under a bubble on the 
banks of the Mississippi, as Fuller has 
also proposed? Does it make sense to 
! create a technologically advanced struc- 
ture just because it can be done or 
i should other principles guide us? The 
nature of the ground covered lends to 
Hix’s book the character of an illus- 
! trated history, a primer on solar energy 
and the virtues of integrating green- 
houses with urban life, and a functional- 
| ist’s commentary on the evolution of 
architectural style. 
Is it contradictory to say that a book 
seeks to be too many things, while also 
i saying that the author should have at- 
tempted more? I think not — if certain 
additions would have clarified the for- 
mat and provided a more solid basis for 
the reader to assimilate the material, 
thus enriching the reading experience. 
Hix’s range of concerns is broad, and 
admirably, he acknowledges the rela- 
tionship of building as a practical art to 
economic and social factors, but in the 
final analysis one wonders whether his 
strong emphasis on the practical aspects 
; of glass building is not a limitation. This 
preoccupation perhaps explains his ne- 
glect of two of the most significant as- 
pects of glass construction. Yet light is 
Leyden University Library Collection 
discussed here in regard to its practical 
qualities rather than its architectural 
ones — light for warmth and as illumina- 
tion for the nurturing of plants, not light 
as an organic and evocative element of 
architecture. Thus, the Gothic cathe- 
drals, in which light was used to aid in 
the conjuring of a mystical environment, 
are not mentioned. 
Second, the transparency of glass has 
the effect of integrating man with na- 
ture (as exemplified in, say, Mies van 
der Rohe’s Farnsworth House), but this 
dimension of glass construction receives 
only passing mention. Moreover, the 
gridded, abstract exteriors, which the 
discipline of making a glass skin 
achieves in its repetition of many rela- 
tively small pieces and joints, have led 
architects to explore minimalist notions 
about building and form. The short 
shrift given these aspects of glass con- 
struction tends to rob readers of some 
potentially enlightening discussion. 
During the mid- to late-nineteenth 
century, there were significant develop- 
ments in several of the artistic disci- 
plines. In painting, the Impressionists 
were experimenting with light and solid- 
ity — the same elements, in a sense, that 
were commanding the interest of archi- 
tects in designing the buildings cited by 
Hix. Certain visual discoveries led to 
changes in the way the wcrld was per- 
ceived, thereby altering the course of 
modem art and architecture. A discus- 
sion of the architecture of light and 
transparency in The Glass House would 
not only have been in order but would 
also have been especially rewarding in 
the context of what was happening in 
other art media at the time. By merely 
touching on the potential of glass and its 
corollary, light, in a rather brief discus- 
sion of the Expressionist architecture of 
the twentieth century, Hix appears to 
grant the glass building, with its wonder- 
fully intricate space and light interplays, 
less than its full status in the history of 
architectural expression. 
Had he chosen a larger frame of 
reference, relating economic, social, per- 
sonal, and aesthetic issues to his investi- 
gation of one building type, Hix might 
have made of his excellent documenta- 
tion a more profoundly enlightening 
work. 
J. Max Bond. Jr., is a partner in the 
firm of Bond Ryder Associates, chair- 
man of the Division of Architecture at 
the Graduate School of Architecture 
and Planning of Columbia University, 
and a member of the New York City 
Planning Commission. 
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