Transparency is arguably one of the most allusive and illusive tropes of modern architectural discourse. When Sejima and Nishizawa use the term-which they often do-to describe their architecture, it is conceptually so elastic and mutable as to seem both categorical and totally resistant to categorization. At times it denotes visual and spatial connection, clarity (visual, conceptual, functional), at other times flexibility and variety, but also spatial ambiguity, reflection, and atmosphere, as well as seeing and not seeing. The multivalence of the term as they use it is certainly perplexing, and one might be inclined to conclude that in signifying everything, it signifies nothing. But that would be false.
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