If you could think of one building that epitomizes the modernist usage of white, what would it be?
My original thought was Villa Savoye, but I'm starting to think that the canonicality (yes that's now a word) of the building itself is what made me think of it, as opposed to its use of white. Eisenman is quite notorious; is it in him? I was also thinking of Loos's Villa Muler, but the rich materiality of the interior somewhat negates the stark use of white on the exterior for this. Could it be elsewhere in Corb, the Villa Stein?
What do you think? If you were to look up the word 'white' in the dictionary of architecture, what building would you see?
I had to anylize and make an addition to the Shamberg House in my second year of school. We didnt know...the whole class didnt know that there was already an addition to the house. I am just finding out through the link I just posted....crazy! WTF
does it have to be ONE building? 'cause i'd propose the weissenhofsiedlung (1927): mies, corb, scharoun, oud, etc - all white! as suggested by the name, of course.
for some reason, i always think of anything by niemeyer...
meier's douglas house. maybe it's the setting? just stands out in a very proud/assertive way. normally i would be appaled (i tend to not like meier's work), but i dig this project a lot, always have.
ronchamp, with fleurishes of color... (i like the chapeau on the chapelle)
I'm having the issue now of how I would negotiate with Corb's color use on the interior, if I were to continue pursuing him. It's a less severe product akin to Loos's Muller. I'm hoping to stay at the scale of the house, so Casa de Fascio and Ronschamp won't work the way I want them to.
That said, I'm resisting moving towards Meier, as his reason to use white is different than my motivation for investigating it. To quote his pritzker prize acceptance speech: "for the whiteness of white is never just white; it is almost always transformed by light and that which is changing; the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon."
To use Meier against himself here, what intrigues me about white in Corb and Eisenman is that "Whiteness is perhaps the memory and the anticipation of color.", which particularly in Eisenman lays the foundation for the "reinhabitation of the home".
Though I hesitate using the word, I'm looking more for an abstraction of color: I am NOT looking to white in order to study "a preoccupation with light and space; not abstract space, not scale-less space, but space whose order and definition are related to light, to human scale" (to quote Meier's speech again)
But, for now I'll stop rambling and get back to work. I found the book "White Walls, Designer Dresses" by Mark Wigley which I think is perfect for my inquiries.
Thanks for the posts; I certainly appreciate the input! Please, don't stop!
the aniticipation of color... i really like that wording. although i wouldn't agree with memory.
if you are looking for houses... the sizas and suoto de moura might prove beneficial. come to think of it, there are a lot of white building in portugal...
YEAH! the Douglas House is pretty awesome - Looks over the LI Sound through some pines. Entrance at the top most level and you filter down into the house.
Meier's office has taken white to the extreme... Ever been to their office? The whole interior is white (obviously)... And even all the models are white... But everyone is dressed in black :P
I remember a quote from an architect installing an exhibit at Maison LaRoche (was it Hejduk?) He was surprised to see red dust from the cay tile core coming out of the hole he was drilling in the wall as he expected it to be white all the way through and said "I made Corbu's building bleed."
alucid, your two posts seem to contradict each other - at first you ask for the epitomy of the modernist use of white (which I agree is probably Loos or heroic period Corb), but later you say, in reference to Meier, you are not interested in ". . .light and space."
Wasn't a big reason for the adoption of white (think Corb's Ozenfant Studio or Villa at Vaucresson of 1922) an effort to dematerialize architecture in order to allow "the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses in light" to play out? I think there is something going on about bringing the inside of the building out, too.
Although I must confess I find both Eisenman and Wigley unreadable.
Although I must confess I find both Eisenman and Wigley unreadable.
truer words were never spoken. christ, i was looking at eisenman recently and actually threw it across the room. this is also the guy who stated in a friday evening lecture had he been a student there, he would be pre-funking for the saturday am football game rather than at a lecture... so i wonder if he even takes himself very seriously.
Your second paragraph sums my belief up, and I don't think that it contradicts with my resistance to Meier. Meier, particularly in that image, negates the inherent materiality of architecture in order to give rise to a 'superior' material, that of light and shadow. If you look at Corb, at Loos, white is used to demarcate and express the MASSES. What I actually dislike about Meier's architecture is that there is so much glass, the volume has no singular form (see the Douglas House). There is very little platonic clarity to Meier (he was postmodern), which is only confused further by his 'over-use' of transparency (in my opinion). That just said, The Athaneum is a great building, although I know very little of it.
I'm actually go with the High Museum (pre-Piano's extension) with the stark white exterior and the forced white interior off-set again the natural parquet flooring made white by the light that floods the space
I would suggest the Reliance Building (now known as the Burnham Hotel) by Burnham and Root. Root originally planned for a polychromed tile but then he died. Charles Atwood became Burnham's chief designer and they switched to white glazed terra cotta which was a risk at the time due to the soot accumulation. it's also some very early curtain wall construction.
Yep, for me it's Douglas House (I still remember the gasp I and the rest of my classmates made when that image in the trees first appeared in slide form in a lecture) or, as techno called, High Museum.
Given that Meier, like the rest of the New York Five, was quoting Corbusier with those early white houses, I wouldn't think they qualify as canonical. How about going back to the bleached Greek temples shining the the Mediterranean sun that inspired the early modernists?
Let's not forget about how noxious the interiors were!
We see the beautiful stone work behind the frescoes.
I often wonder if European obsessions with molding came about from trying to copy the Romans but never realizing that the original molding was often painted on and not carved.
Sorry, threadjack.
Dec 3, 10 3:12 am ·
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Canonically white buildings
If you could think of one building that epitomizes the modernist usage of white, what would it be?
My original thought was Villa Savoye, but I'm starting to think that the canonicality (yes that's now a word) of the building itself is what made me think of it, as opposed to its use of white. Eisenman is quite notorious; is it in him? I was also thinking of Loos's Villa Muler, but the rich materiality of the interior somewhat negates the stark use of white on the exterior for this. Could it be elsewhere in Corb, the Villa Stein?
What do you think? If you were to look up the word 'white' in the dictionary of architecture, what building would you see?
you'd see
yes - you would definitely see Dick Meier
I had to anylize and make an addition to the Shamberg House in my second year of school. We didnt know...the whole class didnt know that there was already an addition to the house. I am just finding out through the link I just posted....crazy! WTF
does it have to be ONE building? 'cause i'd propose the weissenhofsiedlung (1927): mies, corb, scharoun, oud, etc - all white! as suggested by the name, of course.
i would not choose a corb building since almost all of his buildings are actually quite colorful, at least in the interior...
for some reason, i always think of anything by niemeyer...
meier's douglas house. maybe it's the setting? just stands out in a very proud/assertive way. normally i would be appaled (i tend to not like meier's work), but i dig this project a lot, always have.
ronchamp, with fleurishes of color... (i like the chapeau on the chapelle)
terragni's casa del fascio
I'm having the issue now of how I would negotiate with Corb's color use on the interior, if I were to continue pursuing him. It's a less severe product akin to Loos's Muller. I'm hoping to stay at the scale of the house, so Casa de Fascio and Ronschamp won't work the way I want them to.
That said, I'm resisting moving towards Meier, as his reason to use white is different than my motivation for investigating it. To quote his pritzker prize acceptance speech: "for the whiteness of white is never just white; it is almost always transformed by light and that which is changing; the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon."
To use Meier against himself here, what intrigues me about white in Corb and Eisenman is that "Whiteness is perhaps the memory and the anticipation of color.", which particularly in Eisenman lays the foundation for the "reinhabitation of the home".
Though I hesitate using the word, I'm looking more for an abstraction of color: I am NOT looking to white in order to study "a preoccupation with light and space; not abstract space, not scale-less space, but space whose order and definition are related to light, to human scale" (to quote Meier's speech again)
But, for now I'll stop rambling and get back to work. I found the book "White Walls, Designer Dresses" by Mark Wigley which I think is perfect for my inquiries.
Thanks for the posts; I certainly appreciate the input! Please, don't stop!
Douglas house is what first comes to mind for me. Love that thing!
the aniticipation of color... i really like that wording. although i wouldn't agree with memory.
if you are looking for houses... the sizas and suoto de moura might prove beneficial. come to think of it, there are a lot of white building in portugal...
YEAH! the Douglas House is pretty awesome - Looks over the LI Sound through some pines. Entrance at the top most level and you filter down into the house.
isn't the douglas house in michigan?
ok - I feel like an idiot! - I anylized a bunch of Meier house that year - got to be another Dick house that over looks the sound
the smith house is off long island sound...
kinda look similar
heh.......maybe i smoked too much that semester? naaaaaa
I guess it was the Smith House I was thinking of, which is in CT and faces the Sound. For some reason I dont remember shit about the Smith House.
weird - they both look at water and both are white...
both face water w/ pine trees. both white w/ lots of glass and a chimney on the water-side facade.
wow. i love the canopy you can't actually walk down to avoid getting rained on... forcing pedestrians into the street/parking lot.
effing brilliant. ugh.
its almost like they were designed by the same guy.
Meier's office has taken white to the extreme... Ever been to their office? The whole interior is white (obviously)... And even all the models are white... But everyone is dressed in black :P
I remember a quote from an architect installing an exhibit at Maison LaRoche (was it Hejduk?) He was surprised to see red dust from the cay tile core coming out of the hole he was drilling in the wall as he expected it to be white all the way through and said "I made Corbu's building bleed."
alucid, your two posts seem to contradict each other - at first you ask for the epitomy of the modernist use of white (which I agree is probably Loos or heroic period Corb), but later you say, in reference to Meier, you are not interested in ". . .light and space."
Wasn't a big reason for the adoption of white (think Corb's Ozenfant Studio or Villa at Vaucresson of 1922) an effort to dematerialize architecture in order to allow "the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses in light" to play out? I think there is something going on about bringing the inside of the building out, too.
Although I must confess I find both Eisenman and Wigley unreadable.
truer words were never spoken. christ, i was looking at eisenman recently and actually threw it across the room. this is also the guy who stated in a friday evening lecture had he been a student there, he would be pre-funking for the saturday am football game rather than at a lecture... so i wonder if he even takes himself very seriously.
Spruce, just to clarify my position, I think this picture can illustrate my point http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1984/works08.html
Your second paragraph sums my belief up, and I don't think that it contradicts with my resistance to Meier. Meier, particularly in that image, negates the inherent materiality of architecture in order to give rise to a 'superior' material, that of light and shadow. If you look at Corb, at Loos, white is used to demarcate and express the MASSES. What I actually dislike about Meier's architecture is that there is so much glass, the volume has no singular form (see the Douglas House). There is very little platonic clarity to Meier (he was postmodern), which is only confused further by his 'over-use' of transparency (in my opinion). That just said, The Athaneum is a great building, although I know very little of it.
I'm actually go with the High Museum (pre-Piano's extension) with the stark white exterior and the forced white interior off-set again the natural parquet flooring made white by the light that floods the space
I would suggest the Reliance Building (now known as the Burnham Hotel) by Burnham and Root. Root originally planned for a polychromed tile but then he died. Charles Atwood became Burnham's chief designer and they switched to white glazed terra cotta which was a risk at the time due to the soot accumulation. it's also some very early curtain wall construction.
Re the High Museum...
GoMeNtAl!
Yep, for me it's Douglas House (I still remember the gasp I and the rest of my classmates made when that image in the trees first appeared in slide form in a lecture) or, as techno called, High Museum.
Excellent story re: Corbu bleeding, moak!
Why, the White City of course... DUH!
Given that Meier, like the rest of the New York Five, was quoting Corbusier with those early white houses, I wouldn't think they qualify as canonical. How about going back to the bleached Greek temples shining the the Mediterranean sun that inspired the early modernists?
Those temples were once garishly painted. Technically, white wasn't used, it evolved.
Let's not forget about how noxious the interiors were!
We see the beautiful stone work behind the frescoes.
I often wonder if European obsessions with molding came about from trying to copy the Romans but never realizing that the original molding was often painted on and not carved.
Sorry, threadjack.
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