The Louvre Pyramid is designed by I.M.

Pei and con-

Pyramid
structed in 1989. It is conspicuously reminiscent of

Tristan Tzara House

Maison de Verre in form and siting, with its glass
Louvre
facade and repeating use of geometry, and located in
the middle of a courtyard which is defined by French
Renaissance style buildings. Thus the Pyramid can be
Avenu
1989 regarded as a continuation of Maison de Verre, specif- e Junot
ically in how form responds to urban context: the
transparency of glass is once again used to allow light The Tristan Tzara House is
through and into the subterranean entrance hall, designed by Adolf Loos and
contrasting the opaqueness of the original museum built between 1925 to 1926.

Des Hautes Etudes

buildings. The Tristan Tzara house, despite
its similarities with Corbusier's

(IHEAL) building
purist villas in terms of sparse
ornamentation and use of

m
De L'Amerique

6k
1.1
Ha
me
The Institut Des Hautes Etudes De L'Amerique (IHEAL) building
au
des
art
opaque materials, represents a
iste
s
key connection between the

1925-1926
is a university facility built around 1954. It is noticeably differ-
ent from neighbouring Mediterranean style buildings as it latter and Maison de Verre, as
ard
en seen from its form. It is notable

The Institut
exudes a sense of Modernism and share certain similarities in R

1.
2k
du how the wall of the house curve

m
form with the Maison de Verre: compared to neighbouring e
buildings, the structure is more articulated as the distribution Ru slightly inward and have rela-
of the supporting walls can be clearly seen on the facade, such tively small windows, which are

m
5k
made even smaller with the

2.2
1954
that the it forms a framework evocative of Maison de Verre's
steel framework. IHEAL is placed in a courtyard configuration, curvature. Such is a manifesta-
and responds to the enclosure with larger vertical windows on tion of Loos' perception on
the facade. windows for letting light in
rather than gazing out of, which
influenced Maison de Verre in
the arrangement of windows
and materiality.

Pompidou
Georges-
The Centre Georges Pompidou, built from 1971 to 1977, is a
cultural centre in Paris and houses the Musée National d'Art Mod-
erne, and has features that are overtly similar to Maison de Verre,
and goes so far to augment elements from the house. Not only

Place
Ru are the structural elements, such as columns and slabs, are explic-
eS
ain itly shown, but so are the plug-ins and supporting revealed on
t-G
uil the facade in colour and against glass. This can be viewed as a

1977
au
me continuation of Maison de Verre's unique exposure of its structur-
al framework, highlighted in black against the translucent glass
km

facade.
12

Maison de Verre
Designed and built by Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet between 1928 to 1932,
the Maison de Verre was built to be the house and clinic of Dr. Dalsace and his
wife, and is the first residential house in France to have facades made entirely
Villa da Roche

from glass. The Maison de Verre appeared to jut out of a concrete, Mediterranean
style building, as an elderly tenant refused to move from the top floor, which led

le
to the engraving of the house underneath the existing apartment. The house is

el
en
placed within a courtyard, which points to enclosure and closeness, and the

Gr
Built between 1923 and 1925 and Sq Maison de Verre has manipulated this proximity with its unique form - the glass

de
ua
re

e
designed by Le Corbusier, the Villa La facade lets in an extraordinary amount of light from the outside, as well as from

Ru
du
Roche, similar to Maison de Verre, is situat- Dr neighbouring buildings, while at the same time preserving privacy for the
ed in the middle of a ring of houses. How- Bl patients inside.
an
1925-1926

ever, the house is in stark contrast to
Maison de Verre in terms of form, as seen
from its white, concrete facade and hori-
zontal strip windows, extending from one
support to the other. Although concrete is
impermeable, as opposed to glass, the Villa
La Roche receives light in an enclosed
urban condition through the different
arrangement of windows, letting the
sparse concrete facade to enable rooms to
be equally lit from wall to wall.
1928-1932
ch Adding on to safeguarding the privacy of clients, another key feature of the facade would be the arrangement of
e
the windows - Chareau believes that windows are for letting light in rather than gazing out of, and hence only
translucent glass is required, and there are no windows around the clinic.
The Maison de Verre's appeal to Modernism extends beyond its materiality and wall apertures, as it also signifies a
break in the dry functionalist aesthetic pervading Modernist architecture during the Modern Movement in France.
Maison de Verre opposes the Le Corbusier's notion of "a house [being] a machine for living in", advocating how a
house is an efficient tool to help satisfy the necessities of life and no more, therefore any sort of ornamentation
would be superfluous. The Maison de Verre, however, is more of a literal machine on its own, as seen from the
skeleton frame steel construction which holds the modular glass bricks on the facade, and the different opera-
tions of the cabinets and room dividers.