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Case Study Analysis:

Farnsworth House &


The Glass House

Jenny Diaz
FARNSWORTH HOUSE

Mies Van Der Rohe - Architect


Edith Farnsworth - Client
Plano Illinois
Elevated (avoid flooding from near by river)
Architecture & Nature
A place to escape to and relax

49
Built 1949
51
Built 1951

GLASS HOUSE

Philip Johnson - Architect


Philip Johnson - Client
New Canan Connecticut
Planted on ground
Brown brick & black steel frame
A place to be comfortable as oneself
"Mies talks about "free space", but his space is
very fixed". (3.13)
"Promoting the mystical idea that "less is
more"...they are promoting unlivabiltiy,
stripped-down emptiness, lack of storage space
and therefroe lack of possessions". (3.13)

"The guest house appears to be a windowless


bunker a defensible space of intimacy as well as
a "closet". (3.22)
"This house with its four walls of glass, I feel like a
prowling animal, always on the alert". (3.13)

"A form of exhibitionism". (3.17)


"The house appeared to be a fish bowl in which
his life was put on display for all to see". (3.22)
"I can't even put a clothes hanger in my house
without considering how it affects everything from
the outside". (3.13)

"The idea of a glass house, where somebody just


might be looking-naturally, you don't want them
to be looking. But what about it? That little edge
of danger in being caught". (3.17)
"Farnsworth had very little of a "private life" to
conceal: as a single woman, the only thing that
could possibly be worth hiding was her night
gown, the sign for her body". (3.16)

"The cylindrical brick chimney at the core of the


glass house makes an obvious & clearly ironic
reference to the architecture of the traditional
American family home and to the sentimentalized
view of domesticity". (3.22)
"Unlike Johnson's glass house, which features
clusters of large and small objects throughout
the interior and doorways on all four walls, the
interior of the Farnsworth house in unrelenting in
its ordered geometry - & this was something
Farnsworth discovered only through living in the
house over time". (3.17)

"For Johnson, who unlike Farnsworth had a


sophisticated grasp of architectural language,
there was no question that each element in the
design had a carefully constructed meaning".
(3.22)
"A bitterly fought struggle over who was, and
who was not, a "normal" American, a member of a
family, living life in the "right" way. Just as Edith
Farnsworth confronted these issues, so did Philip
Johnson". (3.21)
"Service core becomes a diagram of the house
as a machine, the kitchen and the back-to-back
bathrooms stand in a logical, utilitarian
relationship to one another". (3.24)

"Metaphoric, discursive & picturesque, the


domestic landscape encourage movement
through the space". (3.24)

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