Architect:
Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects - New York.
His early influence as a practicing architect was his use of glass; his masterpiece was a "Glass House" he designed as his own residence in New Canaan, Connecticut, a profoundly influential work (1949). The concept of a Glass House set in a landscape with views as its real 'walls' had been developed by many authors in the German Glasarchitektur drawings of the 1920's, and already sketched in initial form by Johnson's mentor Mies. The building is an essay in minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and the effects of transparency and reflection.
The house sits at the edge of a crest in Johnson's estate overlooking a pond. The building's sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel; the floor, of brick, is not flush with the ground but sits about 10 inches or so up. The interior is open with the space divided by low walnut cabinets; a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling.
Johnson built several structures in his estate. Fifty feet in front of the Glass House there is a guest house, echoing the proportions of the Glass House and completely enclosed in brick except for some small round windows at the rear. It contains a bathroom, a library, and a single bedroom with a gilt vaulted ceiling and shag carpet. There is also painting gallery with an innovative viewing mechanism of rotating walls to hold paintings, as well as a sky-lit sculpture gallery. The last structures Johnson built on the estate were a library-study and a reception building, the latter, red and black in color and of curving walls. [Wikipedia]
Bezoekinformatie:
Philip Johnson Glass House - National Trust.
