THE GLASS HOUSE
Built by Philip Johnson in 1949, the Glass House is an icon of mid-20th-century Modernism. Its simple structure, precise proportions and use of transparency have inspired a slew of contemporary architects
The Glass House sits on 47 acres of land at the edge of a crest overlooking a pond in New Canaan. Created by Philip Johnson as a home for himself ( he lived there until his death in 2005), the property is virtually all glass – vast walls of it are supported only by charcoal-painted steel pillars. There are no interior walls, instead low walnut cabinets divide the space and a brick floor sits 25cm above the ground, floating in a sea of glass. The view of the landscape surrounding the house is its only visual boundary.
One of the greats of American architecture, Johnson was born in 1906. He studied architecture at Harvard under Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius and was the founding director of the Department of Architecture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also worked with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on the bronze and glass Seagram Building on Park Avenue, created The Four Seasons Restaurant and designed a series of other buildings in the city.
The Glass House was Johnson’s personal experimental space; he referred to it as his ‘50-year diary’. The building is surrounded by 14 others, all created by him, including a painting gallery, a sculpture gallery, a library and a reception building. A guest house echoes the Glass House but is made of brick with small round windows at the rear. The architect deliberately designed it to be less than perfectly comfortable. ‘Guests are like fish,’ he said. ‘They should only last three days at most.’
Johnson relished the opportunity to experiment without constraint on the site. ‘This is the purest time I ever had in my life to do architecture. Everything else is tainted with three problems: clients, function and money. Here, I had none of these issues,’ he said.
For tickets to tour the Glass House, visit theglasshouse.org
Contemporary warm-climate architecture tends to welcome the outdoors, with living spaces that transcend the boundaries between inside and out. However, in the early 20th century this was a novel concept, and California owes these roots to Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler and his innovative Schindler House.
The Californian weather was an eye-opener for Schindler, who was born in Vienna (where he studied under architect Adolph Loos) and moved to Chicago in 1914. After working with pioneering architect Frank Lloyd Wright, he moved to Los Angeles in 1922 to launch his own practice. Schindler revelled in the outdoor lifestyle that the climate permitted and, inspired by a camping holiday in Yosemite National Park, decided to create his own studio and home.
The house was radical in construction, with its flat roof and palette of concrete, wood, glass and canvas. Even more daring was its layout: designed for two families to share, much like a campsite, the Schindler House is actually two interlinked L-shaped apartments.
Each living quarter contains a studio and is connected by an area that acts as a communal kitchen and laundry space. In keeping with the campsite theme, meals were eaten outdoors and the families slept in rooftop ‘sleeping baskets’ – redwood four-poster canopies, protected from the rain by canvas sides. The 232-square-metre home sits on a vast plot of almost 1,858 square metres, and living areas are delineated by hedges and different garden levels.
Schindler lived in the house until his death in 1953, with the second apartment home to creative friends and later his estranged wife, Pauline. He designed more than 400 other projects, many of which are now considered Modernist landmarks, but the Schindler House stands out. As the first home to respond to the LA climate, it became the prototype for a distinctly Californian style.
For information on visiting the house, go to makcenter.org