The neutral state is considered to be the closest possible approximation of a baseline of interaction between light and architecture. Within the example of the rectangular room, the baseline represents the range of effect that occurs when one face of the room is a single, perfectly smooth, uncoated, and uninterrupted pane of glass.
Rather than describing a particular effect that occurs through the use of a mediating architectural device, the neutral image acknowledges the range of effect that occurs despite minimal architectural intervention. The notion of this inherent variability is evident in the writings of architects that address the role of light in their work. Natural light is presented as a body of information unto itself. In Thinking Architecture, Peter Zumthor recounts, "I want to think about the artificial light in my buildings, in our cities and in our landscapes, and I catch myself forever returning, like a lover, to the object of my admiration: the light that meets the earth from afar...".1 This light is the product of a history of interaction. After being scattered differently by the gasses and water droplets of clouds in our atmosphere, light arrives to the surface of the earth and is transformed by our natural and built environments before it reaches the site of the architectural opening.
The range of operation that occurs within the immediate context of the project is augmented by seasonal changes and day to day atmospheric weathers. Similar shifts in our personal predispositions toward the perception of and attentiveness to effects of light affect the range of effect that we observe in the neutral state. Certain archetypes attract our attention more than others because of their rare forms of manifestation. The neutral state is often only the object of our attention in those moments when it threatens to disrupt our ability to attend to a task.
By acknowledging this inherent range of incident light that arrives to our architecture, one can acknowledge that the light of a single moment has certain properties, biases, and limits. It may change over the course of a minute, an hour, or a season, but natural light is never truly stagnant. Its interaction with designed devices is similarly transient. Some devices may perform consistently while others require specific circumstances in order to manifest an effect that exists beyond the neutral range.
1. Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, 3rd ed. (Basel: Birkhauser, 2010), 89.