The Houses of Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson's Glass House: Beyond Mies and the Modern Movement
Philip Johnson (b. 1906) began his career in the 1930s as a critic and curator. In 1932, during his time at The Museum of Modern Art, he oversaw an exhibition he titled The International Style, which featured the work of the avant-garde architects, designers and theorists of Europe led by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and his mentor, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was Johnson and this exhibition that helped to define and articulate for the American public the main characteristics of the new Modern Movement know as the International Style.
After turning himself to the practice of architecture in the mid-1940s, Philip Johnson became, among other things, a leader in the postwar institutionalization of modern design in American domestic life. His "Glass House" of 1949, one of the most famous houses of the 20th century, is in many ways a tribute to Mies and to the high modernism and elegant minimalism of the International Style, characterized by flexible internal space and minimal applied decoration. Yet, despite the epoch, the cultural influences and the governing architectural principles of the time, the Glass House registers in many ways as the antithesis of the Modern Movement: it is a cozy nook vs. a "machine for living."
The Modern Movement originated in Europe and marked a total aversion to "the florid excess of Art Nouveau and the precious' interiors of "Wiener Werkstatte." Mass production was established as the means of manufacturing consumer goods, and the Modern Movement was inspired by the concepts of rationalization and standardization. New materials and building techniques led to lighter, more spacious and functional interior environments that stripped away unnecessary ornament and gave a material and structural basis to the abstract idea of pure geometry.
In the new International Style "modernist" language, Le Corbusier defined the purpose of a house as "a shelter against
Philip Johnson (b. 1906) began his career in the 1930s as a critic and curator. In 1932, during his time at The Museum of Modern Art, he oversaw an exhibition he titled The International Style, which featured the work of the avant-garde architects, designers and theorists of Europe led by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and his mentor, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was Johnson and this exhibition that helped to define and articulate for the American public the main characteristics of the new Modern Movement know as the International Style.
After turning himself to the practice of architecture in the mid-1940s, Philip Johnson became, among other things, a leader in the postwar institutionalization of modern design in American domestic life. His "Glass House" of 1949, one of the most famous houses of the 20th century, is in many ways a tribute to Mies and to the high modernism and elegant minimalism of the International Style, characterized by flexible internal space and minimal applied decoration. Yet, despite the epoch, the cultural influences and the governing architectural principles of the time, the Glass House registers in many ways as the antithesis of the Modern Movement: it is a cozy nook vs. a "machine for living."
The Modern Movement originated in Europe and marked a total aversion to "the florid excess of Art Nouveau and the precious' interiors of "Wiener Werkstatte." Mass production was established as the means of manufacturing consumer goods, and the Modern Movement was inspired by the concepts of rationalization and standardization. New materials and building techniques led to lighter, more spacious and functional interior environments that stripped away unnecessary ornament and gave a material and structural basis to the abstract idea of pure geometry.
In the new International Style "modernist" language, Le Corbusier defined the purpose of a house as "a shelter against