Transparency: The Material History of an Idea

By Daniel Jutte and Daniel Jütte

A wide-ranging illustrated history of transparency as told through the evolution of the glass window

"With impressive detail and wide-ranging erudition, J tte charts the history of a single material, glass, as a product of human ingenuity developed across centuries."--James Gleick, New York Review of Books

Transparency is a mantra of our day. It is key to the Western understanding of a liberal society. We expect transparency from, for instance, political institutions, corporations, and the media. But how did it become such a powerful--and global--idea?

From ancient glass to Apple's corporate headquarters, this book is the first to probe how Western people have experienced, conceptualized, and evaluated transparency. Daniel J tte argues that the experience of transparency has been inextricably linked to one element of Western architecture: the glass window.

Windows are meant to be unnoticed. Yet a historical perspective reveals the role that glass has played in shaping how we see and interpret the world. A seemingly "pure" material, glass has been endowed, throughout history, with political, social, and cultural meaning, in manifold and sometimes conflicting ways. At the same time, J tte raises questions about the future of vitreous transparency--its costs in terms of visual privacy but also its ecological price tag in an age of accelerating climate change.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300237243
• ISBN13: 9780300237245
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 3.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.2" x 9.1"