“All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the person in the space”
Philip Johnson is known for his theatricality in architecture. He drew from the architectural greats of the past though the was most inspired by what he called “The International Style”. In his role as the first director of the department of architecture at the MOMA, he influenced the public’s perception through curating the 1932 show “Modern architecture: International Exhibition”, introducing the US to European Modernism. He also co-wrote “International Style: Architecture Since 1922”. (add who he wrote this with)
In this way, he also championed Mies van der Rohe, one of the most influential architects of the 20th c and the last director of the Bauhaus, the ground-breaking German school of modern art design and architecture. Van der Rohe had the greatest influence on Johnson in the early years of his career, with Fransworth House providing inspiration for Johnson’s Connecticut residence, the Glass House.
It is in the Glass House, where these influences are truly apparent, both the love of modern architecture and influence of van der Rohe. Johnson said of the Glass House, “The only house where you can see the sunset and the moon rise at the same time”. This rectilinear structure is created of large glass panels which create a series of reflections combining life outside with inside, a seamless integration with nature.
Johnson says of the house that it is “Stylistically a mixture of Mies van der Rohe, Malevich, the Parthenon, the English garden, the whole romantic movement, the asymmetry of the 19th c… basically it is the last of the modern, in the sense of the historic way we treat modern today, the simple cube.” To us, it is a celebration and marvel of light and nature, to be incorporated in our interiors whenever possible.