Modernism and Architecture

I read a fun piece in Time about Philip Johnson's Glass House, which has recently opened for tours through the National Trust. I had never heard of this place before, but was really intrigued by it and would be very interested in visiting it. Here's the original article from Time. You can also browse through a photo essay here.



Let me paste the first paragraph of the article:

"WHEN COMPLETED IN 1949, THE HOUSE THAT Philip Johnson designed for himself in New Canaan, Conn., was the most resolute statement of Modernist principles ever set down in a leafy glade. An homage to the ideas of High Modernism developed in Europe between the wars, it consisted of floor-to-ceiling glass on all four sides, which was supported by eight steel piers on a brick platform. Not so much a house as the Platonic ideal of a house, it was also an affront to ordinary notions of domesticity and creaturely comfort, and this at a time when not many office buildings, much less country retreats, had adopted the glass-box look. Johnson's only concession to privacy was a tall brick cylinder set indoors that contained a bathroom. To avoid disturbing the immaculate planes of his design, during the day he didn't even allow a pillow on his bed."

More here--an interesting site about the Glass House, with information about Johnson, 3-d models of the house, and critics' takes on the site. And here, a link to the National Trust site.

Although I would hardly classify myself a fan of the modernist aesthetic Johnson demonstrates in the Glass House, I still find myself captivated by its beauty--the clean lines, the spareness, the pure functionality. To me, the house shows a sort of "practical/functional aesthetic" (I have no idea if that's a real term) that is very attractive. It's not so much that I am drawn to these designs in terms of architecture or decorating. Instead, I am more drawn to the kind of thinking that went into developing them. I am not sure if I am making much sense, so let me try again.

I feel like I try to live my life (and perhaps here I mean mostly my intellectual, professional, and/or academic life) in the spirit this house shows--I like things neat, clean, useful. Now I could never take it to the extreme that Johnson and his contemporaries demonstrated, but their ideas do warrant some reflection. In many ways, perhaps, they aren't all that different from Thoreau and his reminder in Walden: "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify." When things are simplified and made clear--when the mess and excess is stripped away--well, that can be a liberating feeling, even if you don't like what you see.

This fall, I'll be teaching Modernists and Post-Modernists for the first time in my American Literature Survey courses. I'm both excited and a bit intimidated by the prospect of introducing students to writers like T.S. Eliot, but might use the Glass House as a way of helping to explain Modernism to them. Sometimes visual aids like this do help. Of course, first I'll have to figure out how to explain the connection...