October is National Architecture Month, also known in some circles as Archtober. To commemorate the month, I am going to post a brief post every day of the month.
The opposite characteristic to solidity is transparency. The ability to see into or through a building. There is possibly not more transparent building that Philip Johnson’s glass house in New Canaan, Ct. Defined by a floor and a roof, we can see right through the house. Our eyes glide right past the round brick solid to the trees on the horizon on the other side of the house.
The story is told that when Frank Lloyd Wright visited the house he refused to take off his hat, because he felt the house didn’t provide a sense of even being inside!
Clearly not a house for everyone, Johnson designed it as his country retreat. He was a single man with no family. And this house is paired with another building, actually sunken into the hillside on the property, with private bedrooms. It was good to be the heir to the Alcoa fortune.
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