Jun 12
2011
The Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut and The Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois. Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe. Curator and architect. Architect and architect. These two buildings were the result of shared ideas and collective desire, but they also complicate the ideas of the copy and the original and the chronologies of Modernism. Points on a Line, a new film by artist Sarah Morris, is the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s first contemporary art commission and first collaboration between the Philip Johnson Glass House (1949) and the Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House (1951). The film is showing this week at Art Basel | Art Unlimited (opening June 13) and is also on view at the Glass House Visitor Center in New Canaan, CT.
Where would you live: the Philip Johnson Glass House or the Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House?
Comment submitted by: Eduardo Souto de Moura, Pritzker Prize Laureate, 2011
I would say, immediately, here in the Farnsworth because of its magical relationship with the place. The house is of an incredible lightness, and it is a 21st century house, that is to say… there is an Italian writer, Italo Calvino, who lectured at Harvard University—Six Memos for the Next Millennium—and one of the lectures [and values] was lightness. And this house was made in the 20th century, but it’s already an introduction to the 21st century…
Sunday, June 12 at 12:16pm
Glass House 18 Replies
Farnsworth House 14 Replies
These two buildings were the result of shared ideas and collective desire; the film Points on a Line documents a shared aspiration to build structures that might change the way we think about a house, a form and a context. But they also complicate ideas of the copy and the original and the chronologies of Modernism. The two buildings demonstrate a legacy of focus upon details and surface – inside and outside. The relationship captures the tension of ego and authorship in precisely deferring architectural statements. By carefully documenting the daily maintenance of these two buildings and lingering over the precise placement of the structures in space and of objects within each structure, we are presented with a clear view of places that have gone beyond their initial use and become the intersection of a dialogue that was both personal and professional.
The Philip Johnson Glass House | Glass House Conversations
Sunday, June 12 at 12:22pm
Comment by:
Phyllis Lambert, Architect and founding director of the Canadian Center for Architecture
“That’s a difficult question, but I think I’d live in the Farnsworth House, because the Glass House already has such an imprint on everything that it already forms a view. The Farnsworth House leaves you very free.”
Sunday, June 12 at 12:26pm
Comment by:
Dirk Lohan, Architect and Grandson of Mies van der Rohe
“There’s no doubt I would live in the Farnsworth House. Mies is the great innovator and solver of architectural issues at least as far as he was concerned he was interested in very clear structural systems, and purity and clarity and getting to the essence of everything, and that house does that there’s no doubt about it, it’s as pure as it can be…It’s almost a philosophical pursuit, to find beauty in simplicity and how to achieve that, and I think in many ways both houses do that, slightly differently. It’s the same language, but it’s not the same poem.”
Sunday, June 12 at 12:28pm
Comment by:
Paula Scher, Graphic Designer and Partner at Pentagram, New York
“Probably the Farnsworth House, It’s longer… I think the Glass House is a form of perfection, but not invention… What the Farnsworth House and Glass House did, is it raised an expectation of what a house could be, what that form could take, what would it feel like to be in that. And that’s what we all have to be striving to do all the time, every time, in any century.”
Sunday, June 12 at 12:30pm
I’d opt for the Glass House. It may be derivative of the Farnsworth plans, but its storied history, proximity to NYC, absence of flood threat, and auxiliary guest house, sculpture and paintings galleries, library, entry pavilion, and folly make the Glass House and its rural campus my choice.
Sunday, June 12 at 5:56pm
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Designer; Director of MFA.DESIGN at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. |
The question is not which house is better, but where one would live. For me, it almost certainly would be the Glass House. It offers so much more than the main glass structure. There are many different “rooms” placed around the site. The site becomes, in effect, a beautiful living space, and that harmonious living in and with nature is something I appreciate.
Monday, June 13 at 7:32am
Overheard at the Art Basel | Art Unlimited viewing of the film Points on a Line:
“Farnsworth house, of course. It is the original.”
Monday, June 13 at 11:04pm
Overheard at the Art Basel | Art Unlimited viewing of the film Points on a Line:
“Glass House. Without question.”
Monday, June 13 at 11:05pm
Comment by @Architizer via Twitter:
“Eduardo Souto de Moura says Farnsworth, & we’d hate to disagree with a Pritzker Prize laureate”
Wednesday, June 15 at 12:34am
Comment by @ashleyllee via Twitter:
“the glass house seems a bit more tolerable- at least the guest house isn’t transparent?”
Wednesday, June 15 at 12:41am
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owner: greystudio |
farnsworth:
If the role of Architecture is to transcend its original context and be a transformative act – then I would surely say the Farnsworth house. Not just for the history, the detailing and its relation to the land – but because it so much more of a challenge to our idea of living. The Farnsworth house does not facilitate our needs, it challenges us to strip them away. I feel I would be abetter person if I lived in the Farnsworth house. – i would have to be.
Wednesday, June 15 at 1:07am
Glass House Campus vs Vitra Campus?!
The Glass House is paying our respects at Vitra for Art Basel! Like the Glass House, the Vitra Campus is made-up of a collection of buildings, they are designed by many of the world’s foremost architects and designers — Where would you live on the Vitra Campus?
SANAA – Factory Building
Jasper Morrison – Bus Stop
Alvoro Siza – Factory Building
Zaha Hadid – Fire Station
Tadao Ando – Conference Pavilion
Frank Gehry – Vitra Design Museum
Nicholas Grimshaw – Factory Buildings
Richard Buckminster Fuller – Dome
Jean Prouvé – Petrol Station
Herzog + deMeuron – Vitrahaus & Lounge Chair Atelier
And, check out the great programs at the Vitra Campus, happening this week for Art Basel!
The Philip Johnson Glass House | Glass House Conversations
Wednesday, June 15 at 12:00pm
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CEO of Architizer.com |
Total admission – I’ve never been to the Farnsworth House and I swooned over the Glass House when I visited in the Fall. So maybe that’s why I would live in the Glass House. Or maybe it’s because the Farnsworth house seems finicky where the Glass House seems secure and sexy in its brutal approach to detailing.
OK. Fine. It is the guest house. I would kill to peek inside!
Wednesday, June 15 at 3:22pm
I am at a disadvantage here because I have not visited the Farnsworth House, but I have visited the Glass House. However, based on my art and architectural history training, I will have to say that I would feel at home and at ease living in the Farnsworth House more so than the Johnson Glass House.
The white painted slab steel edges of the Farnsworth House add a visual weight that “plants” the house to the ground. Psychologically I feel much more secure in a house that looks “heavy” rather than in one that looks “light” as in the Glass House. Maybe this feeling has to do with the fact that I grew up in the Caribbean which is susceptible to hurricanes and the houses (especially in rural areas where I was born) barely make it through a category 1 storm.
Wednesday, June 15 at 10:20pm
Comment by @corningmuseum via Twitter:
“Hmmm…@PJGlassHouse in the fall and @MiesGlassHouse in the summer!”
Thursday, June 16 at 9:55am
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Curator + Collections Manager, The Philip Johnson Glass House |
This is a King Solomon moment…. Do I have really to cut the baby in half to settle the dispute? Jokes aside, I do love the design of the Farnsworth. For me, it reflects a much more refined sensibility. (I am a longtime admirer of Mies, since my earliest days.) But, I have to say, nothing beats the Glass House, especially in late afternoon at sunset when the shadows are long. It is my favorite time of day and utterly beautiful.
Friday, June 17 at 4:46pm
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Curator |
Definitely the Farnsworth House: It is elevated from the ground, and gives me much more than the Glass House the feeling to enter a space which is removed from every day life. Also because it has no other buildings (and swimming pools) around which try to draw your attention and detract you from enjoying the pureness and total isolation of this extraordinary space in its natural surrounding.
Saturday, June 18 at 9:10am
Mad props to the Glass House. When we (Constantin Boym and I) visited Glass House several years back, we were blown away how transparent the structure became in relationship to the grounds, outer buildings, etcetera. Coded both in a purely abstract AND literal way. It can be seen as a portrait of Johnson. And what I mean by that, is there is a unified field, and the house, grounds, and other buildings are really just a platform for Johnson to have a dialogue with himself, his relationship to nature + culture.
Saturday, June 18 at 11:32am
The Glass house is a fine work of architecture, but the Farnsworth is a sublime experience. As for living in either, both were intended as country getaways, and both owners had their main habitat in the city. Visiting at your leisure is better than living in either, since you have the nice people at the National Trust to take care of them for you, allowing you to simply admire them. What could be better?
Saturday, June 18 at 10:09pm
Definitely the Glass House. The Glass House has its feet planted firmly on the ground. Plus I have been watching this house since the 1960-70s
and actually had a “daybed” copied from early photographs of the house. A rectangular box with a wider rectangular box on top – so there is a very attractive overhang. Anyone remember that?
Sunday, June 19 at 12:53pm
As I’m going to be living there, I’m going to base my decision on a comparative analysis of their bathing facilities. The detailing of the guest bathroom shower at Farnsworth gives me the shivers – it is an ideal solution, an integral part of the larger structural system that seeks to minimize elements in order to achieve perfection. At the Glass House, those leather panels are super-cool, but every shower deteriorates them, and who wants to shower with a sense of guilt?
Sunday, June 19 at 2:06pm
Comment by Architectural Photographer @matthewcarbone via Twitter:
“There is no debate. Glasshouse ;)”
Sunday, June 19 at 7:59pm
Keywords
Selected list of words appearing in this and other conversations.
Glass House Conversations
2
Glass House gave the Final Word
Comment submitted by:
Eduardo Souto de Moura, Pritzker Prize Laureate, 2011
[Spanish]
Inmediatamente aquí en la Farnsworth porque tiene una relación con el sitio mágica, la casa es de una ligereza increíble, y es una casa siglo XXI, es a decir.. hay un escritor italiano, Italo Calvino, que ha hecho unas lecciones en la Universidad de Harvard, Seis Lecciones para el Próximo Milenio, y una de las lecciones era ligereza. Y esta casa es del siglo XX mas es ya una introducción al siglo XXI. Bien, se la cuestión es esta, a mi me gustaría mucho más vivir aquí que en la Casa de Vidrio de Phillip Johnson. Porque esa toca mucho el terreno porque es una casa muy transparente mas al final hay algo de banal ahí que no entiendo, y esta es mágica porque parece que vuela. Y como es blanca parece un ángel.
[English]
I would say, immediately, here in the Farnsworth because of its magical relationship with the place. The house is of an incredible lightness, and it is a 21st century house, that is to say… there is an Italian writer, Italo Calvino, who lectured at Harvard University—Six Memos for the Next Millennium—and one of the lectures [and values] was lightness. And this house was made in the 20th century, but it’s already an introduction to the 21st century. If this is the question, I would much rather live here than in Philip Johnson’s Glass House. That one connects markedly with the territory because it’s very transparent, but in the end there’s a banality in it that I don’t understand. This one [the Farnsworth] is magical because it soars. And because it is white it resembles an angel.
Spanish transcription and English translation by Vera Sacchetti.
Sunday, June 12 at 12:16pm