Foreword

Sculpture or Home?

Fig 04, Diagram, Farnsworth House, Author, 2021.

The Lifeless Life of Clinical ‘Homes’

An echoing of the emptiness that exists in supposedly revolutionary “homes”. A “home” where one is too afraid to make a sound when using the immaculate porcelain toilet.

A frigid elegance is something that is ought to portray the clinicality possessed within the works of Mies van der Rohe. Dominating the Cubist and Bauhaus eras of architecture was a glimpse of Minimalism. However, such architectural developments proved irrelevant after Mies unveiled to the world the Barcelona Pavilion at the International Exhibition in 1928.5

The world became tranced by the minimalist ethos of,

“LESS IS MORE”

However,

IS IT?

Mies’ invention of a streamlined and evanescent form conjured up through ambiguous planes created shock, yet an awe, with the Farnsworth House. Such questions arose and dominated the era,

“How would one live in

this home?” 6

There became an obsession with excessive use of metal and glass. However, this obsession of the pristine highlights its ‘nonlivability’. The overuse of these basic materials is intimidating. 7 Such polished treatment of an object in a field distorts the value of its materials, instigating a complacent virtue towards architecture. There lacks a re-use of materials. Here, the new is the only answer according to Miesian values.

5 William J.R Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900 (London: Phaidon, 2016), pp. 270 6 Curtis, Modern Architecture, pp. 403 7 Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows, pp. 21

How does one reside in such a sculpture?

Here, the question of tectonics is highlighted. The Farnsworth House doesn’t explore the capabilities of structural elements to generate domestic spaces. There is no awareness of temporality in a domestic scene.

Mies’ use of intersecting wall planes, that loosely define enclosed spaces doesn’t answer any questions on the ability to dwell. Domestic necessities were discarded for the extravagance of an architecturally sculpted pavilion. Through the exhibition of the Farnsworth House, it proved to contain more than just the harrowingly long floor planes in such turbulent Chicago weather.8 There exists a fear of dirt and mess within this sterile formula of a home. 9 The hiding away of all artefacts and mess within the home in search for the pristine had just begun.

Mies’ grapple on the Western ideal of Minimalism continued, namely with the works of John Pawson. Pawson, a leading “Instagram Architect”, hyper- aestheticises domesticity in his Life House Project, where he obtains a glorified boring and monotonal order. Not only does this supposed dwelling discard the chaotics of what artefacts can be seen, but the ones that remain are imprisoned behind blank walls.10 Such clinicality signals the offensive nature of assemblages in architecture.

8 AD Classics: The Farnsworth House / Mies van der Rohe”, Arch Daily, May 13 2010, https://www.archdaily.com/59719/ad-classics the-farnsworth-house-mies-van-der-rohe 9 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Palladianism”. Encyclo pedia Britannica, 1 May. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/art/ Palladianism. Accessed 14 October 2021. 10 “Works: Life House”, John Pawson Architecture, http://www.john pawson.com/works/life-house. Accessed on 14 October 2021 Humorously, articles written about the Life House, claim it to be a place of “calm and reflection”, which contradicts what this built form truly represents. The mundane things that exuberate a warmth of domestic life is jailed due to the materiality of the home with its dull shades of beige dominating the entirety of the architecture.11

These homes cannot be rendered as “contemporary”. Things and Mess are always hidden away. Where does the human occupy? Such examples derived from Mies, and Pawson portrays homes which only sit on some land. They do nothing more. Large intimidating and sterile windows to “view” the landscape doesn’t mean a connection to site. Contemporary homes work much harder than simply explaining use, defining, or describing atmosphere. The Contemporary focuses on the gestures of the present, from the rigorous to the intentional, to the overlooked and consequential. A Contemporary home does not seek to solve problems but highlight observations on the way humans live today.

We view Miesian based homes with a direct, close-up view. Yet, we see nothing. We encounter an expected. The challenge to the contemporary home is to generate and invoke irrational feelings, or by introducing shocking juxtapositions to the everyday experience of domestic space.12 Within that, we receive a home full of domestic life, a life where the human and their things are the manifestation to evoking such a sequence of spaces.

11 “Life House”, Living Architecture. 12 Shinohara, K., 2011. Kazuo Shinohara, Casas Houses. 2G, pp 9.