Philip Johnson – The Glass House

Philip Johnson – The Glass House

The Glass House

The Glass House was an important and influential project for Johnson and for modern architecture. The building has a minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and has effects of transparency and reflection.

The house is an example of early use of industrial materials such as glass and steel in home design.

The total transparency of the glass conveys that there is nothing to hide from the world, this thought reminds me the modern human's will for transparency in all the aspects of life, politically, socially and economically.

Philip Johnson saw himself as defining a new American way of life. Johnson's Glass House in the suburbs brought European modernist ideas, while criticizing the neighbors' big houses which was built in colonial style.

Johnson's house is a total contrast to the atmosphere of hospitality and solidity of American dachas. At that time the houses described the success and the family fortune, and symbolized the American ambition.

In the town where most of the houses announce their presence with picturesque access paths for cars and gabled-fronted, Johnson's Glass House is almost invisible. He hides behind a low fence and a small hill.

First misconception about the Glass houses is that they are designed for exhibitionist. However, when the architect Johnson built his Glass House, the most important thing for him was a panoramic view of 180 degrees of the forest overlooking the house. To keep it, he bought more land.

The Glass House was a place for accommodation to many artists, designers and architects. In my opinion the place shows architecture as an art. Through transparency, people within the space become represented as a display.

This situation makes me think about the question if is it possible to live in a house of glass without any curtains?

I think that in some way this house creates a reality which privacy becomes visible to the public. I guess that in Johnson's case he got fed up at some point and the Glass House was used eventually only for entertaining, and Johnson slept in the Brick House.

The Brick House

Alongside Johnson Glass House he also founded the "Brick house", a building containing two sealed rooms and services. Among them is dug round pool which completes the composition of the site. The Brick house was illuminated only with stars light and has tiny windows. It was used in for intimacy moments with his partner David Whitney. In my opinion, in some way he cheated his acquaintances, and built a bedroom with solid walls and roof folding.

I guess that at the end architecture's main goal is to solve a need. In Johnson's case it was to create a new approach for modern houses and with his inspiration other architectures also solved the issue of privacy.