Analysis Of The Glass House In New Canaan, Connecticut

In this essay, Johnson’s underlying concept of dwelling will be discussed based on the aspects that can be seen in his masterpiece, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. The Glass House remains as the epitome of modernism, its simplicity and purity of form that is different from early architectural styles in the United States. In the years since its completion, the Glass House has maintained its good reputation on critics, architectural historians, and other architects. (Cite) According to Johnson, there are seven crutches of modern architecture that need to be considered when designing a building.

According to Johnson, history, the first crutch of modern architecture, should be taken into consideration in the concept of dwelling. History was a major source of ideas that could be adopted, modified, or reversed but in some way had to be acknowledged. At his New Canaan home, historical references can be seen in the

The Glass House is sometimes referred as ‘the diary of an eccentric architect’ by Johnson. Like a diary, it reflects his changes in architectural styles over time, from Modernism to neoclassical to Post-Modernism and beyond. (Cite) Johnson’s own explanation of the Glass House acknowledged his intention to fulfill Mies van der Rohe's goals by creating a building pure in its form and materials, seeing it as a sort of variation on Mies' 1947 design for the Farnsworth House in Piano, Illinois. (Cite) Although sometimes misunderstood and even compared to Mies for the wrong reasons, Johnson was never cryptic about his sources and intentions. He always acknowledged Mies's significance in allowing him and many others to break with the past, openly embracing the name "Mies van der Johnson" in reference to his early work. At the same time, in replacing the formula "Form follows function" with his own dictum, "Forms follow ideas."