PHILIP JOHNSON

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An icon of modern architecture: the Glass House
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The Glass House (1949)

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P. JOHNSON

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The “Glass House” was designed
by Philip Johnson as his own
residence in New Canaan,
Connecticut, in 1949. It has
profoundly influenced the U.S.A
architecture of the 2nd post-war,
probably more than any other
building by the American architect.

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The Glass House, Connecticut (1949)

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Today is widely considered by the art

historians to be a masterpiece in the use
of glass. It was an important, influential
project both for Johnson himself and for
the evolution of modern architecture. The
building can be considered as an “essay”
in minimal structure, geometry,
proportion, and the effects of
transparency and reflection.
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“Philip Johnson, one of the early advocates of the Modern
Movement in the United States and one of the first
architects to point to its shortcomings in the fifties,
designed, in his own Glass House, one of the world’s most
beautiful houses; it was never envisioned as a
“home” (house) to live in but a life-style stage to live with.
Ostensibly entirely in l’esprit nouveau of the Modern
Movement, it was a building really expressing many
concerns of classic design, from the elevated placement of
an object in a space, to its serene proportion, general
overall symmetry, and combining of a balance of elements
with a meticulous refinement of detail....”
Paul Heyer

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“...a building really expressing many concerns of

classic design, from the elevated placement of an
object in a space, to its serene proportion, general
overall symmetry, and combining of a balance of
elements with a meticulous refinement of detail...”
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The “Glass House” is an example of
one of the earliest uses of industrial
materials like glass and steel in home
design. Johnson lived here for 58
years, and since 1960 with his longtime
companion, David Whitney, an art
critic and curator who helped
designing the landscaping and largely
collected the art displayed there.

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The “Glass House” is located
behind a stone wall at the edge of a
crest in Johnson’s estate
overlooking a pond. The building is
56 feet (17 m) long and 32 feet
(9.8 m) wide. The exterior sides of
the Glass House are charcoal-
painted steel and glass. The brick
floor is about 10 inches above the
ground.
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The Glass House, plans

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32 feet (9.8 m)

The Glass House, floor plan

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56 feet (17 m)
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The Glass House, 3d rendering

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The “Glass House” builds on ideas
of German architects from the 1920s
(“Glasarchitektur”): a house of glass
with landscapes views as “walls”.
Johnson was deeply influenced by
the architecture style of his “master”
Mies van der Rohe, in particular by
his famous Farnsworth House,
though, this latter one was completed
a few months later...

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VAN DER ROHE

PHILIP JOHNSON
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Farnsworth House (1951)

The Glass House (1949)

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“The serene Glass House is generally considered one of
the 20th century’s greatest residential structures. Like all of
Mr. Johnson’s early work, it was inspired by Mies van der
Rohe, but its pure symmetry, dark colors and closeness
to the earth marked it as a personal statement: calm and
ordered rather than sleek and brittle...”

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Paul Goldberger
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Farnsworth House (1951)

...it was inspired by Mies van der Rohe, but its pure symmetry,
dark colors and closeness to the earth marked it as a personal
statement: calm and ordered rather than sleek and brittle...

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The landscape surrounding the
Glass House Estate was carefully
designed by Johnson and Whitney,
with manicured areas of gravel or
grass, and with a lot of care taken
in the shape of the slopes and
curves of the ground. A way to
harmonize the buildings with the
natural surroundings.

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The Glass House, Art and Nature

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The Glass House, Art and Nature

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The landscape design was meant to
reflect a painting of a landscape most
loved by Johnson: “Burial of Phocion”
by Nicolas Poussin (1648). This in fact
was placed in the midst of the seating
area of the Glass House and today can
still be seen. Johnson, Whitney and
their guests in this way could see and
admire the similar views of the picture
and of the landscape. Art & Reality “as
one”.
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The Glass House (1949)

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The Glass House, “Burial of Phocion” by N. Poussin

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The Glass House, Art & Reality as one

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Art & Nature as one

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Art & Nature as one, Art & Reality as one

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The “Glass House” rambling estate,
originally 47-acre (190,000 m2), today
includes 13 Modernist structures that
Johnson built over 40 years, including:
the “Brick House” (1949–1950), which
served as a guest house, the Lake
Pavilion (1962), the Painting Gallery
(1965), the Sculpture Gallery (1970),
the Study (1980), the Ghost house
(1982) and “Da Monsta” (1995).

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The Brick House (1950)

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The Brick House (1950)

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The Brick House, interior

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The Brick House, interior

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The Painting Gallery (1965)

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The Painting Gallery, interior

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The Painting Gallery, interior

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The Painting Gallery, interior

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The Sculpture Gallery (1970)

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The Sculpture Gallery, interior

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The Sculpture Gallery, interior

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The Sculpture Gallery, exterior

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The Study (1980)

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The Study, interior detail

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The building structures vary between rectangular
and circular shapes. The “rectangularity” of the
Glass House itself is complemented with a
circular brick fireplace. The Brick House, also
rectangular, faces the Glass House, but a nearby
concrete, circular sculpture (by Donald Judd)
and small circular pools “soften” the rectangular
effect. Other structures and objects that can be
found throughout the estate are arranged to
show patterns/repetitions of curves and angles.
In this approach Johnson showed his deep
relation with the architecture of the past: Classic
and Roman architecture.
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The “Glass House” can be considered
as an extraordinary example of
residential complex through which it is
possible to perceive the evolution of
Philip Johnson’s architecture style
and, at the same time, the evolution of
American Modern Architecture: from
Modernism to Post-modernism.

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“Da Monsta” (1995)

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“Da Monsta”, exterior

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“Da Monsta”, interior

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Glass House, plan of the estate

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Glass House, plan of the estate

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Glass House estate (1949-1995)

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Glass House estate (1949-1995)

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Glass House estate (1949-1995)

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Glass House estate (1949-1995)

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Glass House estate (1949-1995)

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From Modernism to Post-modernism

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The Glass House, Connecticut (1949)

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