Curtain-as-wall

Abstract

From the private space of the boudoir to the public space of the museum, curtains are typically associated with interior decoration. As functional ornament, they commonly remain outside the traditional scope and canon of architecture, yet their spatial deployment demands (re)consideration. This research explores an architectural history of curtain and their “hidden” use in modernism. The inclusion and subsequent erasure of these textiles occurred in tandem with the proliferation of the free plan, the free façade and the curtain wall. The following essay attempts to highlight the pivotal role of curtains beyond lighting control and client demands for privacy, but as a soft architecture of flexible programming. Through architectural drawings, details and documented photos, key architectural projects—including Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion (1925)—are examined to understand the role of curtains in early 20th-century designs. Whether the initial parti or the result of post-occupancy demands, curtains were necessary for a functional architecture of transparency. “Curtain-as-Wall” further considers how the modernist curtain evolved into unconventional contemporary variations, such as SANAA's Glass Pavilion (2010) or Inside Outside's Kunsthal Rotterdam commission (1999), and other 21st-century examples. Unlike their predecessors, the translation of these new curtains are integrated into the architectural drawings as a crucial project component. The essay seeks to reclaim curtains as an alternative strategy in architectural design. It further demonstrates that curtains are also codified with identity politics and semantics, much like building elements, and aims to blur the disciplinary boundaries between architecture and interior design.