The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard

Tomasz Głowacki

doi:10.37190/arc230105

Abstract

The phenomenon of the architecture of absence refers to a growing trend in designing buildings/objects/space, involving minimal visual interference with the surroundings or even its complete absence. Based on the analysis of examples mainly from the contemporary realizations, the work distinguishes and describes various ways (categories) of creating the architecture of absence, which ultimately define its typology. It includes the following categories: 1) translocation, 2) artificial topography, 3) camouflage and illusion, 4) temporariness and mobility, 5) super-transparency, 6) dematerialization. The architecture of absence is a way of seeking balance in an increasingly overcrowded and built-up world, in which green and artifact-free areas are radically shrinking. With its withdrawal and disappearance, it pays respect to nature and heritage, the natural and cultural environment in which it is created. By freeing the horizon, it is a visually non-invasive response to the declining urban space and architectural disorder.

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2023

1(73)

Tomasz Głowacki*

The architecture of absence.

The phenomenon that became a standard

Introduction

Absence, dened lexically as “the absence of a person

from a place”, is a broad concept that also largely means

“disappearance”, “non-existence” or “invisibility”. The

title term “Architecture of Absence” refers to the visual

phenomenon of the absence of architecture in the cultural

and natural landscape, and is understood as an intentional

design procedure resulting in a slight visual interference

of the planned object or its complete absence from the

existing environment. In the literature, this type of archi-

tecture is often referred to by the terms invisible or disap-

pearing, which, in the opinion of the author of this pub-

lication, do not fully capture the essence of things due to

the wider range of connotations and the diverse manner of

design creation (see: [2]).

The phenomenon of the architecture of absence reects

not only a dierent perception of architecture and its im-

pact on the environment, but also a perception of reality

itself, in which the category of “absence” is becoming

more and more pronounced in our time. Researchers and

philosophers have long engaged in a discourse concerning

existence and non-existence, presence and absence. Inter-

estingly and importantly for the topic under study, this

discourse received a particular boost in the 2

half of the

century in the deliberations of postmodern thinkers

[3], which also inuenced late 20

century architectural

theory and practice itself. The Parmenides understand-

ing of “absence” as a simple and absolute negation of all

presence, complements and completes the Heideggerian

“non-being”, i.e. a character devoid of “being”, or the

Derridean notion of non-presence, resulting from its se-

miotic “diérance” (dierent) [4]. As Alicja Kuczyńska

rightly summarizes Heidegger’s considerations, absence

is understood as an undisclosed and unperceived reality.

She states, among others, that […] the mental category of

absence does not pronounce the absence /as it happens in

everyday language/, but speaking about something that

– for various reasons – now remains beyond the reach of

our perception, in fact it indirectly conrms the phenome-

non of some being [3, p. 50].

The various (at least two) forms of viewing absence

described by philosophy are reected in the perception

of architecture, its understanding and denition. They are

also reected in the perception of the architecture of ab-

sence itself.

The architecture of absence is not a new phenomenon

and dates back to the dawn of our civilization. Apart from

the phenomenon of the underground cities of Cappado-

cia, dating back as far as 3000 B.C., objects hidden from

undesirable view, such as shelters, tunnels, military bas-

es and treasure houses, have been built for a long time.

A common solution was and still is to “hide” them in an

unusual environment, mainly underground or under water.

Key to the analysis of the phenomenon is the change in the

reason for the “translocation” of a building. In the past,

these were mainly military and protective reasons, while

today this decision is very often a result of the “need to

DOI: 10.37190/arc230105

Published in open access. CC BY NC ND license

ORCID:

0000-0002-2520-6035. Faculty of Architecture, Wrocław

University of Science and Technology, Poland, e-mail: tomasz.andrzej.

glowacki@pwr.edu.pl

Absence, the highest form of presence.

James Joyce [1, p. 96]

52 Tomasz Głowacki

breathe” in a world heavily urbanized and full of artefacts

of civilization, as well as out of respect for the specicity

or beauty of a given location and recognition of the value

of neighboring buildings, e.g. historical ones.

Development of the phenomenon

For over a quarter of a century the phenomenon of the

architecture of absence has been gaining momentum, al-

though the rst spectacular realizations of invisible build-

ings began in the 1970s. The phenomenon of “invisible

architecture” can be found in the conceptual art of Yves

Klein [5], the land art of e.g. Nancy Holt and May’i Lin

[6], as well as in the work of the artist duo Christo and

Jeanne-Claude, who in 1973–1974 wrapped the walls

of Rome, Via Veneto and Villa Borghese, and later the

Berlin Reichstag (1975–1995). Despite the dominance

of postmodernism, deconstruction and high-tech in that

period, it is worth recalling some famous architectural

“absentees”. 1971 saw the beginning of work on a land

art housing project in Breitenbrunn, Austria, called The

Pit, designed by Peter Noever [7]; 1973 saw the construc-

tion of the Olivetti landscape housing project in Ivrea near

Turin, designed by Aimaro Isola and Roberto Gabetti,

hidden in the escarpment; in 1975 an oce building was

built in Ipswich, designed by Norman Foster, reecting

the surroundings with a glass curtain wall [8], in 1980 the

Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove in California, covered

with a Venetian mirror and designed by Philip Johnson

appeared [9], and in 1989 a glass pyramid designed by

Ieoh Ming Pei crowned the underground extension of the

Louvre museum in Paris.

The 1990s saw the realization of Emilio Ambasz’s build-

ings covered with green roofs (e.g. the prefecture head-

quarters in Fukuoka 1990), the transparent Cartier Foun-

dation on Paris’s Boulevard Raspail (1991–1994), or the

velodrome and Olympic stadium by Dominique Perrault

(1992–1999), hidden in Berlin in earthen embankments

[10]. One can, of course, argue whether the above ob-

jects are the result of the need to disappear from the hori-

zon, but undoubtedly there has been a thinking about the

search for balance and the need not to be dominated by the

architectural “ego”.

A very interesting example of such a change in archi-

tectural consciousness is Stefan Müller’s 1973 ideological

project called TERRA X [11], which points to a radical

way to balance our planet’s ecosystem. It presents a vision

of an exodus of humanity more than 2.0–2.5 km above the

Earth’s surface to a geodesic urban structure encircling

our globe. Importantly, at the planned distance it would be

invisible from land. Thus, freed from constructional inter-

ference, the planet has a chance for the rebirth of nature,

remaining a zone of recreation, leisure and culture (with

its monuments of civilization).

Typology of absence architecture

Analyzing the architecture of absence one can notice

several ways of creating/designing the eect of its visual

disappearance or disappearing from the environment. The

author’s typology will be presented below, which distin-

guishes the following categories [12].

Translocation

Translocation consists in locating a new volume in an

unusual environment, i.e. underground, under water or very

high above the ground, as was the case in the TERRA X

project. Translocation architecture does not take away or

obstruct the panoramic view, because its volume is located

in a place which is not visible to us, under the ground or wa-

ter. Underwater architecture is often part of the infrastruc-

ture of oceanariums, where visitors can use glass tunnels to

go under the surface of bodies of water with marine ora

and fauna. There are occasional appearances of underwater

hotels and restaurants, e.g. Ithaa from 2005 on the island

of Rangali in the Maldives (by M.J. Murphy Ltd) or Under

o the coast of Lindesnes in Norway, designed by Snøhetta

from 2019, in which the main character connecting users

with the underwater world are acrylic glass partitions.

Examples of underground architecture abound, from

the numerous car parks, warehouses, underground and

railway stations connected to the underground levels of

shopping centers (such as in Toronto), to museum expan-

sions. Excellent examples of museum expansions are the

award-winning Joanneum Museum in Graz by Nieto Sobe-

jano Arquitectos (2006–2011) and the Städel Museum in

Frankfurt am Main (2008–2012) by Schneider+Schuma-

cher (Fig. 1). Both projects place the underground vol-

ume in close connection and correlation with the existing

buildings.

In the case of the extension of the Joanneum Muse-

um, the three historic buildings are linked by a common

courtyard, under which a reception area with the main en-

trance hall, a reading room, a conference room on level –1

and storerooms and archives on level –2 are located. The

underground is illuminated by a series of glazed patios

Fig. 1. Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main,

proj. Schneider+Schumacher (photo by Norbert Miguletz,

source: https://archello.com/project/stadel-museum)

Il. 1. Städel Museum we Frankfurcie nad Menem,

proj. Schneider+Schumacher (fot. Norbert Miguletz,

źródło: https://archello.com/project/stadel-museum)

The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard 53

of an object of translocal architecture from the ground

or water with visible fragments of entrances, openings

and glazing. An important role in articial topography is

played by the function of the roof as a dominant land-use

element whether in the form of a green meadow, a sheet of

water or a pitch or square (cf. [13], [14]).

On a smaller scale, it is represented by the 2012 San-

caklar Mosque in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, Turkey by ar-

chitect Emre Arolat [15]. It creates a stone, concrete and

earthen setting in which an amphitheatrical basin leads to

a modern cave – a horizontal hall of the mosque, sunk in

the terrain. Also of interest is the 2019 Dune Art Museum

in Qinhuangdao, China, by OPEN Architecture, where

a sand-covered sequence of concrete caverns merges with

a landscape of beach and dunes.

Much larger in volume, examples of articial topog-

raphy include the Antinori winery in Tuscany from the

2012 Archea Associati project (Fig. 2). Its numerous and

extensive functions, from wine production, bottling and

storage, to parking, oces, tasting and exhibition areas,

a restaurant and a guest house, have been covered with

green roofs for the cultivation of vines with great mastery.

Despite its vastness, the building disappears from the hori-

zon, continuing the beauty of the Chianti hill. Only two

horizontal intersections, illuminating the rooms, inform

about the existence of the winery in the natural landscape.

Dierent in the formation of articial topography is the

landmark architectural realization of the marine terminal

in Yokohama (Fig. 3) by Foreign Oce Architects (1995–

2002) [16]. The 430-meter-long structure forms a new land

recessed into the ground, in the form of inverted cones.

The project not only introduces a substantial additional

volume in an unobtrusive way, but also achieves a positive

urban transformation of the site. This is a beautiful exam-

ple of how the “architecture of absence” of a new court-

yard can integrate and organize the existing buildings.

The intervention in the Frankfurt Museum is dierent.

Constructed in 1878, the Neo-Renaissance building was

extended with additional wings in 1920 and 1990, re-

sulting in an underground exhibition hall with an area of

3,000 m

in place of the historic garden, which is enclosed

to the south by the existing Städel Academy of Art build-

ing. The most characteristic feature of the extension is the

green roof with its central bulge, perforated by 195 round

skylights. Their regular arrangement and size (diameter

1.5–2.5 m) give a unique appearance to the museum gar-

den, creating an intriguing composition of glass dots (sky-

lights) against the turf as if from the works of Japanese

artist Yayoi Kusama.

In both cases, instead of a spectacular, visible exten-

sion, we are dealing with an invisible intervention that

improves the functioning of the existing facilities both in

architectural and urban planning terms.

Artificial topography

Articial topography architecture occurs when the

outer shell of a building (generally the roof and walls)

become a fragment of the natural or articial terrain and

landscape. This is an intermediate stage in the emergence

Fig. 2. Antinori winery, Toscany, proj. Archea Associati (photo by Pietro Savorelli, courtesy of Archea Associati)

Il. 2. Winiarnia Antinori w Toskanii, proj. Archea Associati (fot. Pietro Savorelli, dzięki uprzejmości Archea Associati)

54 Tomasz Głowacki

One of the simplest and oldest procedures is masking

a building with vegetation which covers (overgrows) its

façades and roofs. The buildings of the shing village of

Houtouwan on Shengshan Island in China, abandoned

in 1990, are a notable example of this. When, over time,

they became overgrown with dense ivy and blended into

the green landscape of the mountains, the perception of

a r -

chi tecture changed completely. The relationship between

cultural and natural landscapes was fundamentally trans-

formed. In a rural or small-town setting, the natural land-

scape, as a rule, forms the backdrop to the strongly exposed

building fabric. In this case, nature covers the existing typ-

ical architecture with a green carpet, which balances the

relationship between the two.

Another way of making a building invisible is the mir-

ror eect. The building or a signicant part of its façade

is covered with mirrors (glass, metal or plastic) in which

the surroundings are reected. A famous example is the

Tree Hotel (Fig. 4) by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter from

2010 in Harads, northern Sweden. Suspended 4 m above

the ground around tree trunks, the two-person accommo-

dation capsules, in the form of a 4 m plywood cube, have

been clad entirely in mirror. By laminating translucent

lines of reective UV light into the glass, the cubes be-

come visible to birds and invisible to humans.

Another example in the same category is the horizontal,

narrow skyscraper of the BNL-BNP Paribas headquarters

in Rome by Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluo (Fig. 5)

in 2016. Its façade, covered almost entirely in Venetian

glass, has been deliberately laid out at dierent angles.

The building has Janus dierent faces: on the west side

of the Roma Tiburtina train station, the glass façade in tri-

angular, projecting, broken bands is dynamic and reects

the sky; on the west and the 21

Pietralata district, it takes

on a calmed expression, with simple glazing politely fac-

ing the residential buildings. Prestigious and monumen-

tal, due to its nancial importance and dimensions, the

edice loses its distinctive identity and disappears in the

cityscape. By manipulating the arrangement of the mirror

panes at the right angle, we can consciously reect select-

ed fragments of the surroundings (sky, greenery, monu-

ments, etc.), causing the object to dissolve in space.

The eect of absence in the category of camouage and

illusion can also be achieved by superimposing or pro-

jecting appropriate images onto the façade. A trivially

simple method is represented by the Murman architects’

summer house in Katthammarsvik, Sweden (Fig. 6) from

2007. The one-story building, set between juniper trees, is

surrounded by a screen of mesh vinyl fabric printed with

reworked photographs of existing juniper trees. Only the

windows and glass doors do hint at the existence of the

house, blending it with the trees on the plot from a distance.

A much more costly and technically complex creation

of architectural invisibility has been heralded since 2008

by GDS Architects’ design of the Innity Tower skyscrap-

er (current name Crystal Top Tower) near Incheon Airport

on the outskirts of Seoul. The illusion of invisibility is to

be provided by LED screens on the façades, displaying

actual images of views obscured by the building, obtained

from cameras. The tower, invisible from the city’s vital

– a promontory and a pier in one, connected to the Tokyo

Bay waterfront. Using the principle of folding

the archi-

tects have transformed the building into an articial land-

scape of dunes formed by a continuum of broken planes,

mostly clad in wood. The three levels of the termi nal – lled

from the car park, through the terminal proper, to the of-

ces and shops – are connected by ramps in accordance

with the organization of the functions and communication

within the facility. Their owing course, like the structure,

continues the “looped” continuity of the space, while lack-

ing

linearity and unambiguous directionality. The entire

upper level/roof of the terminal has been designed as an

extensive public viewing terrace, which is an extension

of the recreational axis of the neighboring Yamashita and

Akaranega parks. It is worth noting that the formation of

external public spaces within the building footprint is one

of several advantages of absence architecture.

Camouflage and illusion

For the categories of camouage and illusion, the eect

of absence can be achieved in many ways. They all in-

volve creating an optical illusion that makes the building

invisible at rst sight.

Folding – a trend in architecture and a way of designing described

for the rst time in: [17].

Fig. 3. Yokohama International Passenger Terminal,

proj. Foreign Office Architects (photo by Satoru Mishima,

source: https://divisare.com/projects/314352-foa-azpml-farshid-moussa-

vi-architecture-valerie-bennett-yokohama-international-port-terminal)

Il. 3. Terminal morski w Jokohamie, proj. Foreign Office Architects

(fot. Satoru Mishima, źródło: https://divisare.com/projects/

314352-foa-azpml-farshid-moussavi-architecture-valerie-bennett-

yokohama-international-port-terminal)

The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard 55

landscape perspectives, is to be visible to aircraft and

birds. Completion of the 450-meter tower (which only

began in 2020) is expected in 2024. Will the high-rise ac-

tually become invisible – time will tell?

Super-transparency

The category of super-transparency means the elimi-

nation of the optical barrier between the architecture and

the surroundings and, at the same time, between the in-

side and the outside thanks to the possibility of making an

object out of a very transparent building material, which

is inorganic or organic glass. This creation of absence is

due to technological progress in the production, quality

and size of glass panels and their bonding and application

of functional nano-, micro- and millimeter-sized layers

[18], [19]. Transparent panes nowadays can be the only

material for erecting a building. They not only play the

role of a transparent partition providing adequate light-

ing and visual contact with the surroundings, but thanks

to specialized low-emission coatings they also create

a comfortable thermal barrier. The latest solutions using

photovoltaic quantum dots or transparent perovskite lms

enable increasingly ecient electricity production [20]. In

addition, glass can now serve a structural function as col-

umns, beams, ceilings and roofs, eliminating traditional

Fig. 4. Tree Hotel in Harads, proj. Tham & Videgård Arkitekter (photo by Åke E:son Lindman,

source: https://www.thamvidegard.se/work/public/treehotel/)

Il. 4. Tree Hotel w Harads, proj. Tham & Videgård Arkitekter (fot. Åke E:son Lindman, źródło: https://www.thamvidegard.se/work/public/treehotel/)

materials. Not yet fully explored is the potential of acrylic

glass, which is used to create giant walls in oceanariums,

such as the giant one in the Dubai Mail aquarium, 32.8 m

wide, 8.3 m high and 75 cm thick.

We no longer need concrete or steel to set glass walls

and ceilings, all we need is the right silicone adhesives to

create the eect of a completely transparent building. But

is it really? The problem with standard glass solutions, in

terms of absence, remains their slight tinting and reec-

tivity due to their oxide content and thermal properties.

By resigning from thermal glazing sets with low-emission

coatings and using discolored glass of the OptiWhite type,

we increase their transparency and are able to get rid of

the mirror eect.

Such a solution is represented by the façades of the

one-story Museum of Glass in Toledo, USA, designed by

SANAA in 2006. The architects have dispensed with in-

sulated thermal glass (always reective to some extent)

in favor of thin laminated sheets which not only provide

an outer shell, but also internal partitions. The result is

a highly transparent structure of separate rooms with glass

walls, within a glass cuboid. All the rooms of the muse-

um: exhibition rooms, café, auditorium, service rooms and

corridors have taken the form of round, separate transpar-

ent “cells” surrounded by a transparent “membrane” of the

external façade. Moreover, the space created between the

56 Tomasz Głowacki

Fig. 5. BNL-BNP Paribas in Rome, proj. Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo (fot. Luc Boegly,

source: https://www.archdaily.com/800230/bnl-bnp-paribas-headquarters-5-plus-1aa-alfonso-femia-gianluca-peluffo)

Il. 5. BNL-BNP Paribas w Rzymie, proj. Alfonso Femia i Gianluca Peluffo (fot. Luc Boegly,

źródło: https://www.archdaily.com/800230/bnl-bnp-paribas-headquarters-5-plus-1aa-alfonso-femia-gianluca-peluffo)

Fig. 6. Juniper House in Katthammarsvik, Sweden,

proj. Murman Arkitekter (photo by Åke E:son Lindman,

source: http://www.murman.se/projekt/juniper-house/)

Il. 6. Juniper House w Katthammarsvik, Szwecja,

proj. Murman Arkitekter (fot. Åke E:son Lindman,

źródło: http://www.murman.se/projekt/juniper-house/)

“cells” and the “membrane” acts as a thermal buer, addi-

tionally supported by the operation of the ceiling and oor

heating and cooling system [21].

The atypical nature of the solutions and the high cost

of implementation are the reason for the small number of

buildings made entirely of glass so far. One of these is the

entrance pavilion to the Apple shop on Fifth Avenue in

New York from 2011, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jack-

son (Fig. 7). Its cube form consists of twelve glass wall

panels and three roof panels measuring 3 × 9.7 m, support-

ed by four glass frames. Even skeptics may be persuaded

by the impression that the interior and exterior blend into

each other while the object melts into the space.

Temporariness and mobility

Temporary and mobile objects constitute another cat-

egory of the creation of absence architecture, which con-

sists in the impermanent connection of the building with

its surroundings. A temporary or mobile building does not

create a permanent relationship with the place on which it

temporarily stands

. Therefore, its perception changes – in

our consciousness an object is not assigned to the environ-

ment, it does not become its element, because in a moment

it will leave it. We may compare viewing the environment

with mobile architecture to observing e.g. a natural land-

scape with a road running along it, on which a single car

rarely and silently passes. When describing this hypothet-

More on this topic in: [22].

The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard 57

as Loud Shadows (Fig. 8) 2017 in the Netherlands or

Whether Weather in Seoul in 2021.

A marketing oer of inatable domes, aimed at indi-

vidual users, was proposed by French designer Pierre-

Stephane Dumas. He created the Crystal Bubbles collec-

tion – seven types of leisure and residential domes

diering in size and transparency. The most total is the

rst model (a single dome with a vestibule/slider) also

called Casa Bubble – made of a completely transparent

waterproof and reproof membrane, inated with air by

a silent wind turbine. Its super-transparency and exibility

makes the boundary between architecture and surround-

ings disappear almost literally.

Dematerialization

Dematerialization means replacing standard building

matter with subtle matter, i.e. light, steam, water or streams

of warm or cold air. The intention is to erect buildings out

of immaterial partitions and electromagnetic shells wheth-

er in the form of elds, waves or/and radiation. Of course,

nowadays even if we dene space and shape architecture

by means of infrared (thermal) or visible radiation (visible

light) – which we will discuss below – visions of non-ma-

terial barriers or capsules straight from science ction and

fantasy remain so far in the sphere of the future. Huge

technological advances may soon change this situation,

given how quickly radio and Wi-Fi networks have re-

placed thousands of kilometers of data cabling, and air

Fig. 7. Apple Store entrance pavilion, New York,

by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (photo by E. Łużyniecka)

Il. 7. Pawilon wejściowy do sklepu Apple, Nowy Jork,

proj. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (fot. E. Łużyniecka)

ical landscape, the car may not be taken into account at all

as not belonging to it as a separate entity. Of course, when

the dirt road turns into a constantly busy urban artery, the

string of cars on this road will be perceived as an essential

attribute of such a space. A similar phenomenon therefore

occurs in the relationship of architecture to its surround-

ings. Mobile and temporary architecture does not interfere

with a specic area, becoming absent from it.

Examples include the reference to a house on wheels,

e.g. the historical carriage of Michał Drzymała from 1904.

A Polish peasant ghting against Germanization, who was

not allowed by the Prussian authorities to build a house on

his own land, used the trick of living in a circus wagon.

This was because a mobile home was not subject to build-

ing regulations. In the past and at present, many people

forced to follow work for economic and climatic reasons

have lived in tents or in the vehicles they used to move

around. However, there has always been and continues to

be in society a certain group living on the move by choice

[23]. Today such a category includes campers – a milieu

particularly strong in the United States, which predates the

generations living in the legendary silver camper trailers,

the so-called Airstreams (the rst models of the 1930s) or

the less luxurious “Cucumbers” – the multi-colored Volks-

wagen T1s repainted by hippies from the Flower Power era.

Due to their temporary nature, structures that appear

on a short-term basis at a location and are not residential

vehicles have a lightweight and easily assembled form.

Container and tent structures predominate, but pneumatic

structures represent a particularly interesting solution in

the context of absence. In these structures, made of a sealed

outer shell, the load-bearing structure is taken over by

compressed air. What is interesting in terms of the subject

matter is that their specicity requires the use of a mini-

mum of textile covering, reducing the unnecessary weight

and surface area of the matter used. At the end of the 1960s

there was an explosion of inatable objects, from military,

sports and exhibition halls to artistic and philosophical

projects and installations [24]. Here it is worth mention-

ing the visions spun by Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto,

as well as the manifestos of the young, angry architectur-

al oces of the time: the German Haus-Rucker-Co., the

Viennese Coop Himmelb(l)au, the British Archigram, the

Italian Archizoom or the American Ant Farm.

RAUMLABOR, a Berlin-based collective of experi-

mental architectural practice, is now successfully imple-

menting alternative ideas of the 1970s with the use of

pneumatic structures. Their inatable transparent “bal-

loons” (e.g. Spacebuster in the USA in 2009 and 2011

or Kitchen Monument

in European cities in 2006), ap-

pearing occasionally in various cities and places around

the world, assume, depending on the location and needs,

various functions activating and integrating communities

– from conference, cinema and banquet hall, through ball-

room and concert hall, to boxing ring and steam bath.

Similar fascinating pneumatic spaces are also currently

being realized by the Berlin group Plastique Fantastique

Joint project with Plastique Fantastique.

58 Tomasz Głowacki

curtains at the entrances to buildings have replaced tradi-

tional windbreaks.

Examples of dematerialization in architecture are an

avant-garde and peculiar phenomenon. Except in the case

of the unique role of the electromagnetic wave, which is

visible light, which has always accompanied architecture.

From time immemorial, chiaroscuro has emphasized and

dened depth and perspective; light brought to the fore what

was important, while shadow concealed secrets or unim-

portant fragments. Especially in darkness, light becomes

sucient to completely dene space. Its demiurgic char-

acter, known during theatrical performances and concerts,

reveals the created reality to the audience, delineates and

articulates the scene and all its characters. For the time

being, the light wave allows us to function in spite of the

darkness, but it does not yet protect us from the rain or car-

ry furnishings and users. Nevertheless, the replacement of

standard building elements by subtle matter is taking place.

A noteworthy exemplum of a certain attempt to dema-

terialize architecture is the Bangkok Art Museum project

from 2002. Dusty Relief (Fig. 9) [25], by the French of-

ce R&Sie(n), whose façade is ultimately shaped by dust.

The museum’s cuboid blocks (white cubes) were covered

amorphously with an aluminium mesh under electrostatic

tension, attracting dust particles. The designed shielding

is not only to ensure the appropriate dispersion of natu-

ral light inherent in the exhibitions, but also, and this is

important, to purify the air of one of the world’s most

smog-polluted metropolises. It is a great pity that the coup

d’état in Thailand halted the realization of this highly in-

teresting and post-ecological project.

Another example concerns the inconspicuousness of

the partitions of the Digital Water Pavilion, a pavilion for

Expo 2008 in Zaragoza designed by Carlo Ratti Associatti

in collaboration with scientists from MIT. All four façades

of the building are formed by digitally controlled water

droplets coming from nozzles placed along the edge of the

roof. As well as delineating space, they generate two-di-

mensional pixelated lettering, patterns and images. When-

ever a visitor intends to enter and exit the pavilion, the in-

teractive system locally switches o the nozzles, allowing

passers-by to cross the water curtains without getting wet.

The impression of the ethereal in architecture or land-

scape is often achieved using fog. For example, in 1991

architect Atsushi Kitagawara and artist Fujiko Nakaya,

in Tokyo’s Showa Kinen Park, designed a cloud-covered

hilly area with a 32-meter steel pipe that emits articial

fog every 15 minutes.

The architects Diller Scodio + Renfro did the same

when designing the temporary pavilion Blur Building for

the Swiss EXPO 2002. With an “articial cloud” they

covered the light steel structure of the viewing platform at

the foot of Lake Neuchâtel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzer-

land. The de facto platform was a machine for producing

a ne mist from lake water pumped and ltered through

31,500 high-pressure jets. Stepping into the white mist

Fig. 8. Loud Shadows, proj. Plastique Fantastique (photo by Jelte Keur, source: https://plastique-fantastique.de/LOUD-SHADOWS)

Il. 8. Loud Shadows, proj. Plastique Fantastique (fot. Jelte Keur, źródło: https://plastique-fantastique.de/LOUD-SHADOWS)

The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard 59

and experiencing its physical aspects, i.e., droplets and

lack of visibility, involved in a way touching the absence

of architecture, landscape and space.

Pioneering realizations of the physical dematerializa-

tion of architecture as such, and not only its elements, are

represented by installations and para-objects by Swiss

architect Philippe Rahm [23]. They prove that the classi-

cal denition of architecture as an interdependent triad of

function, structure and form can be replaced by the inter-

dependence of immaterial elements: temperature (T), light

intensity (lux) and relative humidity (HR). In his works he

consistently applies his formula in the installation Interior

Weather, among others: T*lux*HR = form and function,

dening space only from amaterial shells.

One of his most spectacular projects, co-authored by

Mosbach paysagistes and Ricky Liu & Associates, is the

2011 competition to transform a former airport site into the

70-hectare Jade Eco Park in Taichung, Taiwan (Fig. 10).

Using computational simulations, the dynamics and distri-

bution of heat, humidity and air quality were determined

throughout the revitalized area. The aim was to create

a recreational and leisure open space that clearly mitigates

the nuisance of the humid subtropical climate and reduces

the pollution of the agglomeration. In addition to appro-

priately selected and designed greenery, it was decided to

introduce innovative climatic devices to achieve the de-

sired objective. Among the numerous trees, paths, hills

and trac tunnels, various types of installations have been

installed to improve the air quality. These include cooling

devices releasing clouds of water vapor and underground

heat exchangers with cool air blowing. In addition, dry-

ing devices use silica gel to absorb water from the air,

while air lters remove pollutants from vehicle emissions,

among other things. Mosquito repellent devices that emit

ultrasonic sounds were also used. Instead of conning us-

ers to glass and air-conditioned pavilions in the park, the

same comfort was oered without walls and architectural

restrictions – in the open and “fresh” air. Jade Eco Park is

a project of architecture absent on a large scale, realized

successfully and with concern for man and nature.

Conclusion

The typology of absence architecture presented above,

based on the selected projects, shows various ways of in-

uencing the perception and awareness of the recipient so

that the object is considered invisible. It is crucial for ar-

chitectural practice that the presented typology of absence

architecture denes at the same time a range of design

methods (ways of architectural creation) for achieving the

eect of an object’s disappearance from its surroundings,

which are:

Fig. 9. Bangkok Art Museum, proj. R&Sie(n) (source: https://www.new-territories.com/roche2002bis.htm)

Il. 9. Muzeum Sztuki w Bangkoku, proj. R&Sie(n) (źródło: https://www.new-territories.com/roche2002bis.htm)

Fig. 10. Jade Eco Park in Taichung, Taiwan, with cooling isolation,

proj. Philippe Rahm Architects and Mosbach paysagistes

and Ricky Liu & Associates (photo by Philippe Rahm Architects,

source: https://www.archdaily.com/903925/touch-it-smell-it-feel-it-

architecture-for-the-senses/5bc4664af197cc1712000285-touch-it-smell-

it-feel-it-architecture-for-the-senses-image)

Il. 10. Jade Eco Park w Taichung na Tajwanie z instalacjami chłodzącymi,

proj. Philippe Rahm Architects oraz Mosbach paysagistes

i Ricky Liu & Associates

(fot. Philippe Rahm Architects, źródło: https://www.archdaily.

com/903925/touch-it-smell-it-feel-it-architecture-for-the-sens-

es/5bc4664af197cc1712000285-touch-it-smell-it-feel-it-architecture-

for-the-senses-image)

60 Tomasz Głowacki

– translocation,

– temporariness and mobility,

– articial topography,

– super-transparency,

– camouage and illusion,

– dematerialization.

The categories of translocation, articial topography,

camouage and illusion are concerned with concealing

a solid or falsifying its appearance in the environment.

The categories of temporality, super-transparency and

dematerialization are related to the realization of objects

from lighter, clearer and more subtle materials, up to the

use of invisible electromagnetic radiation.

The illusory, imaginary character of achieving the dis-

appearance of architecture brings to mind the Derridean

notion of the “appearance of presence” [3, p. 52] or, in

this case, the “appearance of absence”. The physical drive

towards dematerialization, on the other hand, reveals to us

the reductivist need to rid ourselves of the ballast of struc-

ture and matter itself, to the point of its ultimate disap-

pearance, and moves towards a Parmenidean non-being.

The distinguished typological bipartition resulting from

dierent means of creation is also due, as we can see, to

the bipartite semiotic understanding and perception of “ab-

sence” that Patrick Fuery [27] sees, and which coin cides

with a dual understanding of the architecture of absence.

The categories: temporality, super-transparency and dema-

terialization are related to the understanding and design

of absence itself – dened by Fuery as primary absence

[27, pp. 1, 2], referring, as it were, to Parmenides’ non-be-

ing. Architecture disappears directly and literally – it ees

from a given place or becomes physically/materially in-

visible in that place. On the other hand, the categories of

translocation, articial topography, camouage and illu-

sion correspond to the perception of secondary absence,

which appears only in relation to presence, in this case

the necessary presence of the context of a given site and

surroundings. The building continues to physically exist,

although it is hidden in the terrain completely or partially,

or it pretends not to be there by applying an illusory layer

of mirrors, greenery or camouage masking.

The architecture of absence, realized all over the world

in a variety of places and environments, usually appears in

three specic situations:

1) when there is a lack of space in the location – the

surrounding area is heavily built-up,

2) when the neighborhood concerns historic or socially

important buildings,

3) when the location concerns open natural areas with

great scenic qualities.

Characteristic locations make us aware of the import-

ant role played by the context in forming the architecture

of absence, which paradoxically is brought out by the dis-

appearance of architecture. The architecture of absence

withdraws its ego to exist without form, highlighting the

context. It emphasizes the presence of the place it annexes.

Although it cannot be seen, it makes the “context” notice

itself and gain weight. A poem by Miron Białoszewski

aptly and succinctly denes this particular characteristic

of the inuence of absence on the surroundings, and on

reality as a whole: always / the world is in the doorway of

non-being [28, p. 181].

The realizations of the architecture of absence cited in

the article, describing individual categories of its typolo-

gy, apart from the case of physical dematerialization, are

not an unusual and unique phenomenon. Looking at con-

temporary buildings, one can risk a thesis of constantly

growing number of “invisible” objects.

In a sense, the architecture of absence is becoming

a sign of our times, evolving into a global design trend

that applies to economically weak, medium and highly

developed countries alike. It is possible that – following

Jean Baudrillard’s reections – it represents a process of

systema tic vanishing of a reality [29, p. 32], the tendency

for real reality to disappear in favor of the illusion of hy-

per-reality, which will eventually be dominated by the “art

of disappearing”

This sad and destructive, for Baudrillard, path to ab-

sence is interpreted quite dierently by Zen philosophy.

It is in absence that it sees the way to awakening and cog-

nition of truth. It is similar in the case of the architecture

of absence, in which the disappearance of an architectural

form becomes an expression of its identity. Referring to

the well-known statement of the author of the philosophy

of nothingness Nishida Kitaro

, paradoxically, one can

say that the architecture of absence arms itself through

its own negation of itself. Its invisibility, which makes it

impossible to read its form, appearance, dimensions and

character, leads us to the metaphysics of “absolutely con-

tradictory self-identity”

. From this perspective, the archi-

tecture of disappearance – shapeless and undened – is

perfect, abstract and transcendent like the Absolute.

Referring to the motto of this article – James Joyce’s

phrase that absence is the highest form of presence – one

can risk a claim that the architecture of absence is the

highest form of architectural presence. It is an ideal form,

which it does not have to manifest, because it does not

exist, which therefore does not have illusory layers of

meanings and connotations covering up the real reality.

The disappearance of the subjectivity of the architecture

of absence, the disappearance of its ego sensitizes the user

and the space and architecture itself to the fact of co-exis-

tence and co-feeling of the world as a whole.

Summary

The article has a pioneering character, dening and

describing the phenomenon of architecture of absence, as

well as ways of situating and creating it. At the same time

it shows objects already realized, while indicating further

possible directions for the development of architecture that

minimizes its visual interference with the environment.

See: essay, pp. 98–110, cf. his statement: […] we live in a world

of simulation, a world where the highest function of the sign is to make

reality disappear and to mask this disappearance at the same time [30,

p. 110].

Sentence of Kitaro Nishidy: The absolute arms itself through

its own self negation [31, p. 25].

A characteristic expression of the philosophy of nothingness, see: [32].

The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard 61

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What is important for the studied phenomenon of ab-

sence architecture is the fact that all categories concern

a change in the perception of an object in relation to its

surroundings and context. Architecture ceases to be the

most important element and the protagonist of design ac -

tivities, giving way to space and greenery, the historic con-

text or/and the natural environment. Inextricably linked

with the history of civilization and buildings representing

its development, the need for the building to stand out in

space recedes into the background. Dominance and dis-

tinctiveness in the landscape, characteristic for architec-

ture, the need to exist and to symbolically spin a tale about

the greatness of the investor, architect, god or deity lose

their raison d’être. The undisturbed context and the freed

landscape are becoming the protagonist.

The architecture of absence is a response to the change

in the relationship between the built and undeveloped

environment that is currently taking place. With the ex-

ponential growth of the world’s population, urbanization

and environmental pollution, our planet is being adverse-

ly transformed. From urban centers of civilization amidst

vast wilderness and chemical-free elds, we have trans-

formed the Earth into a densely built-up, concreted and

degraded landscape with only a few islands of natural

greenery. Big industry, agriculture, commerce, urbaniza-

tion and transport have annexed vast areas of land where

nature has been relegated to nature reserves. In such a sit-

uation, when there are fewer and fewer places in the world

undeveloped and devoid of the crowding artefacts of

civilization, the space-releasing architecture of absence,

becomes a psychological and physical need or even, to

quote John Pawson and Claudio Silvestrin, “an absolutely

anthropological necessity” (after: [33, p. 84]).

The architecture of absence emphasizes the role of sur-

roundings and context, its importance and signicance in

maintaining a cubic balance in the designed environment.

It reveals the inseparable relationship between built and

undeveloped areas, and thus between man and nature. It

shows how by withdrawing one’s dominance in space, one

can respect the natural and cultural environment. It tries to

reduce visual interference in the surroundings and nature

to a minimum. It is an answer to the decreasing amount

of space in cities and architectural disorder. It represents

a new way of bringing balance to the built-up world, in

which, as Bolesław Szmidt notes, we have […] fewer and

fewer […] such places on earth, when there is a chance to

see the horizon undisturbed by man [34, p. 252].

Translated by

Anna Zadrożna

62 Tomasz Głowacki

Abstract

The architecture of absence. The phenomenon that became a standard

The phenomenon of the architecture of absence refers to a growing trend in designing buildings/objects/space, involving minimal visual inter-

ference with the surroundings or even its complete absence. Based on the analysis of examples mainly from the contemporary realizations, the work

distinguishes and describes various ways (categories) of creating the architecture of absence, which ultimately dene its typology. It includes the

following categories: 1) translocation, 2) articial topography, 3) camouage and illusion, 4) temporariness and mobility, 5) super-transparency,

6) dematerialization.

The architecture of absence is a way of seeking balance in an increasingly overcrowded and built-up world, in which green and artifact-free areas

are radically shrinking. With its withdrawal and disappearance, it pays respect to nature and heritage, the natural and cultural environment in which

it is created. By freeing the horizon, it is a visually non-invasive response to the declining urban space and architectural disorder.

Key words: architecture, absence, disappearance, invisibility, dematerialization

Streszczenie

Architektura nieobecności – fenomen, który staje się standardem

Fenomen architektury nieobecności dotyczy coraz powszechniejszej tendencji w projektowaniu budynków/obiektów/przestrzeni, polegającej na

minimalnej ingerencji wizualnej w otoczenie czy nawet całkowitej jej nieobecności. W oparciu o analizę przykładów, głównie z realizacji współ-

czesnych, w pracy wyróżniono i opisano różnorodne sposoby (kategorie) kreacji architektury nieobecności, które ostatecznie określają jej typologię.

Obejmuje ona następujące kategorie: 1) translokację, 2) sztuczną topograę, 3) kamuaż i iluzję, 4) tymczasowość i mobilność, 5) supertransparent-

ność, 6) dematerializację.

Artykuł ma charakter pionierski – opisuje i deniuje fenomen architektury nieobecności. Ukazuje, iż jest ona sposobem szukania równowagi

w świecie coraz bardziej przepełnionym i zabudowanym, w którym radykalnemu skurczeniu ulegają obszary zielone i wolne od artefaktów. Swoim

wycofaniem i zniknięciem oddaje szacunek przyrodzie i dziedzictwu, środowisku naturalnemu i kulturowemu, w którym powstaje. Uwalniając hory-

zont, jest nieinwazyjną wizualnie odpowiedzią na zmniejszającą się ilość przestrzeni w miastach i architektoniczny nieład.

Słowa klucze: architektura, nieobecność, zanikanie, niewidoczność, dematerializacja