Light in Architecture

fivefiltered light – creating atmosphere

Opposite page Stained glass, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, 1903–78, by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem ... its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

— Revelation 21:10–11 (ESV)

Light is God Himself

In the 13th century, a concept of light appeared in the nascent field of architecture that was closely connected to an aesthetic theory according to which light – claritas, in the original Latin – took on the importance that harmony and proportion – consonantia – had held in classical ...