Philip Johnson

In the reading, "People Who Live in Glass Houses: Edith Farnsworth, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson" the author, Alice T. Friedman, examines the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe and Glass House by Philip Johnson from different perspectives.

Esta historia podría empezar con una carta del Archive photographique Gomis-Prats a James Johnson Sweeney, que trata sobreJoan Miró, con fecha de febrero de 1946: Desde los inicios de la última guerra hemos sido los únicos en fotografiar la producción de este artista. Cada una de las fotografías han sido tomadas bajo su supervisión y aprobación. Este procedimiento se ha seguido no solo en sus cuadros, sino también en sus nuevas actividades como escultor y ceramista.

In this essay, I analyze the extreme right-wing political philosophy developed and promoted by Philip Johnson between 1932 and 1940 and compare It to the Nietzschean architectural politics he promoted in the postwar pe­riod. Johnson's intellectual legacy, in particular the architectural theory of Peter Eisenman, is discussed in terms of the "aestheticization" of politics and history. This analysis proceeds in light of German philosopher Pet􀀉r Sloterdijk's conception of post-1945 "survival" through cynical reason in which one knows that what one is doing is wrong but does it anyway to sur­vive and get ahead. In opposition to Eisenman and Johnson's cynical reason, I propose a return to what Sloterdijk describes as kynicism: the disclosure of the falseness of the cynic and the false structure of cynical society.

The Rothko Chapel is known in Houston and throughout the art world as a non-sectarian, ecumenical sanctuary, open to all, dedicated to Art, Spirituality and Human Rights.  Opened in 1971, it is an internationally renowned institution that has hosted spiritual leaders and peace advocates including the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.  It is considered a seminal work in the history of art, particularly in the history of site-specific, artist installed work; it is a space entirely controlled by one artist’s vision; an integration of art and architecture—it is an important Gesamptkunstwerk, or total work of art.  Yet it was not originally intended or commission to be this.  It’s history is long and it evolved from a Catholic chapel intended for the campus of the University of Saint Thomas to what it is today over the course of more than a decade.

Talk given at Artful Thursday Program, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 1, 2015.

This is the text to the 20-minute video presentation available elsewhere on this site. It is from the 2021 US DoCoMoMo's National Symposium on May 27 (delayed from 2020 in Chicago). It explores the history and cultural situation of what may be the first International Style enclave of houses realized in the United States, designed by Alfred and Jane West Clauss, on edge of Knoxville Tennessee. Begun in 1939, the 5th of the planned ten houses was completed in 1943. The Clausses left the Knoxville area in 1945 to live and practice in the Philadelphia area. Their work, which is both fine and important, is absent from virtually every major overview of Modern Architecture. That said, the complex context of their work and its influence on some of America's most esteemed post-war architects, has yet to be properly situated within the larger and nuanced story of American modern architecture. This presentation is but a start. NB: In the presentation at DoCoMoMo, I misspoke, stating that Max Clauss (Alfred's cousin who held an important propaganda post for the Nazi regime) toured the US after the invasion of Poland; it was 1938. This presentation is also available on the US DoCoMoMo website.

Le sublime ne s’établissant jamais comme la dénomination d’un courant architectural ou stylistique propre, la recherche du terme ou de l’emploi de ses effets ou caractéristiques dans l’architecture se fait dans un contexte historique en constante évolution.
Ces recherches se sont construites autour des occurrences dans le discours de Philip Johnson de la notion de sublime. C’est à travers l’étude des différents écrits et entretiens réalisés par l’architecte que ce travail de recherche s’est organisé.

The idea of transparency is first introduced in modern architecture at the dawn of 20th century. From theoretical texts to buildings, the various meanings attached to this ambiguous materiality are in direct connection with the given social background. The paper focuses on the use of glass facades in domestic architecture by examining and juxtaposing the examples of the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe and the Glass House by Philip Johnson in terms of their design features, their historical – social context and their impact.
Sometimes glass appears as the symbol of clarity, of the constructional “honesty”, as in the case of Viollet-le-Duc who admires the Gothic Style and proposes an ideal architecture of steel and glass. Or the case of the Bauhaus and their “Neue Sachlichkeit”, where transparency of the Bauhaus School in Dessau by Gropius is seen as the conception of spacetime by Giedion or the reflection of bodymind by Breuer. Meanwhile, glass becomes a symbol of the surreal and the fairytale in the utopic sketches of Paul Schreebart and the Glass Pavilion of Bruno Taut. What Walter Benjamin calls “maison de verre- maison de rêve” (glass house- dream house). However, the symbol of lightness, clarity and truth becomes an agonising potential facilitator of voyerism or indiscretion.
The Farnsworth House was put in the very center of this discussion and the personal relation of Mies van der Rohe with Edith Farnsworth has inflamed the controversy that did not remain a disatisfaction between architect and client, but took public dimensions with sues, court trials and massive journalistic interest. On the other hand, the Glass House inspired by Mies and designed almost identically, was inhabited by its designer and became emblematic, a symbolic example of contemporary living. However, its very use and its expansion with multiple other supporting buildings around the lot (namely the Brick House) proves that the most obscure sides of domestic life have indeed no place to rise inside the transparent walls, as Farnsworth complained.
Modern architecture was haunted by the ideal of transparency. The interaction between interior and nature, private and social sphere was achieved with absolutely transparent materials, spatial infiltrations and an abiding flow of light, air and motion.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the life and constitution of Eric Kuhne in the context of Bluewater Shopping Centre. This is done to deduce the specific elements of Kuhne’s pre- and mid-Bluewater life that afforded the project such success. The time frame studied will therefore be limited to the period between Kuhne’s birth in 1951 and Bluewater’s completion in 1999.

(from the cover) Scenario di quotidiana relazione fra le persone, luogo prediletto di autodeterminazione e sopraffazione nel quale si riflettono le tensioni e le gerarchie sociali, l'ufficio costituisce fin dalla nascita del mondo industriale un fattore decisivo del processo sociale ed economico: le sue articolazioni coinvolgono, su scala planetaria, l'esistenza di milioni di esseri umani che operano nel segno del progresso e delle sue contraddizioni. Indagare significati e complessità di una variabile fenomenologia di interni, arredi e oggetti è pertanto compito che attinge alle risorse della sociologia e del pensiero architettonico, della letteratura e del cinema, della storia economica e del design. L'evoluzione di una vicenda, che lega ambienti e strumenti del lavoro immateriale ai concreti destini di singoli e collettività, è ricostruita dall'autrice a partire dai suoi lontani antecedenti con agilità di disegno, qualità di informazione e di sintesi.
** The office has always reflected the principal changes in society, almost immediately. With the book Uffici. Interni, Arredi, Oggetti, Imma Forino looks into the workplace not just as a mere outer shell, but through the phenomenology of its spaces and decor, presenting an overall vision that is rich in talking points and stimuli for reflection.
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Indice

Introduzione

I. Lo spazio di un uomo
1.  Il topos di Diogene
2.  Artefatti e “paraphernalia”
3.  Lo studio laico
4.  “Concettosisssimi ricetti”
5.  Il libro al centro
6.  Interiorità borghesi
7.  Esposizioni sperimentali
8.  “Cellule de travail”

II. Le stanze degli impiegati
1.  Pratiche contabili e amministrative
2.  “Bureaucratie”
3.  L’apparato burocratico
4.  Tipologie antropologiche
5.  La linea del corridoio
6.  L’enclave finanziaria
7.  Lo stile commerciale
8.  “Elevator building”
9.  Verticalismi
10. Corporation newyorkesi
11. Arredi brevettati
12. Impiegate
13. La  stanza
14. La dissoluzione della stanza
15. Fortezze “versus” cattedrali
16. Uniformità replicabile
17. “Corporate America”

III. I panottici industriali
1.  La divisione del lavoro
2.  “Mass production”
3.  Dalla fabbrica all’ufficio
4.  “Time clock”
5.  Arredi standard
6.  Modelli specializzati
7.  Uffici moderni
8.  Scenografie
9.  Restyling
10. Rigore italiano
11. “Meuble” metallici
12. Linee italiane
13. Risposte pratiche
14. Progetti integrali
15. Isole vitali
16. L’office designer

IV. La scienza dell’ufficio
1.  La piramide sociale
2.  Organizzare il fattore umano
3.  Scritture elettrificate
4.  Intelligenze seducenti
5.  “Landmark” di cristallo
6.  Lo stile aziendale
7.  Spazi adattabili
8.  Ambienti pubblici e privati
9.  Il linguaggio universale 
10. La specializzazione professionale
11. Protagonisti
12. Office design
13. Pianificare l’eleganza
14. Il sistema arredativo
15. Lavorare nella natura

V. Il progetto umano
1.  “Torracchioni” nazionali 
2.  Ottimistici slogan
3.  Espressioni antimonumentali
4.  Episodi puntiformi
5.  Accoglienze nordiche
6.  “Human workplace”
7.  Arcipelaghi aziendali
8.  L’arredo-azione
9.  L’anelito al lusso
10.  “Articulation” ed “esplanade”
11. Dicotomie sensibili
12. Decadenza burocratica
13. Disinvolte ironie
14. Combinazioni organizzate
15. Personal computer
16. “Panel-system generation”

VI. “Always on!” 
1.  Autoregolazioni
2.  Burocrazie interiorizzate
3.  Uffici cibernetici
4.  La trasformazione del lavoro
5.  La Rete di conoscenze
6.  High tech/hi-touch
7.  Interazione e autonomia
8.  Mi piego per non spezzarmi
9.  Senza fili
10. Capsule
11. Senza colletto
12. Informalità creative
13. L’ufficio relazionale
14. Sottigliezze
15. Temporanee condivisioni

Un mondo che ci governa?

Riferimenti bibliografici
Indice dei nomi

This paper considers the relationship between the emerging profession of lighting design and the experience and promotion of modern architecture in the United States during the post-war era. Forming the core of this study is the collaborative design process developed between Philip Johnson, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Richard Kelly, a prominent mid-century lighting designer. The case studies examined in this paper include the Glass House, 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, and the Seagram Building. Challenging architect-centric histories, this paper considers the role of lighting design in the realization of several modernist ideals, including transparency of the glass curtain wall, articulation of structure, and luminous architecture. The influence of illuminated advertising and modern stagecraft on the theory and practice of architectural lighting design also are addressed. This paper argues for an expanded history of modern architecture, one that includes the significant contributions of lighting design.

In this essay, I analyze the extreme right-wing political philosophy developed and promoted by Philip Johnson between 1932 and 1940 and compare it to the Nietzschean architectural politics he has promoted in the postwar pe­riod. Johnson's intellectual legacy, in particular the architectural theory of Peter Eisenman, is discussed in terms of the "aestheticization" of politics and history. This analysis proceeds in light of German philosopher Pete􀀉r Sloterdijk's conception of post-1945 "survival" through cynical reason in which one knows that what one is doing is wrong but does it anyway to sur­vive and get ahead. In opposition to Eisenman and Johnson's cynical reason, I propose a return to what Sloterdijk describes as kynicism: the disclosure of the falseness of the cynic and the false structure of cynical society.

The Museum of Modern Art opened the Architecture Room in February 1933 as a dedicated exhibition space for its newly created Department of Architecture, headed by Philip Johnson. Its inaugural display consisted of two concurrent exhibitions whose juxtaposition threatened to undermine the vision of modernity that Johnson embraced: one showcased functionalist furniture by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand, staged as an example of “modern interior architecture”; the other presented collotypes after the work of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Responding to MoMA’s engagement with Rivera’s work, the Architecture Room became the contested site of an entangled modernism where a serial logic in exhibition practice was used to contain the threat of muralism’s artisanal technique and revolutionary themes. The intersection of Mexican muralism and the International Style in Johnson’s domestic modern imaginary exemplifies the heterogeneity and hybridity of modern culture and offers the possibility of decolonizing the story of modernism.

La mostra “Michelangelo e il Novecento” si è tenuta a Casa Buonarroti a Firenze e alla Galleria Civica di Modena tra il giugno e l’ottobre 2014 ed è stata dedicata alla fortuna micheangiolesca nella cultura visiva e progettuale del XX secolo e dell’età contemporanea. Il Buonarroti ha avuto un’influenza che spazia dalla citazione diretta al richiamo ideale e che abbraccia l’arte, l’architettura e il design. Davide Turrini ha partecipato al comitato scientifico della mostra con rappresentanti delle università di Firenze, Perugia, Pisa, Roma Tor Vergata e Harvard. Ha inoltre curato la sezione “Allestimenti e design” e ha contribuito al catalogo interamente bilingue italiano/inglese con il saggio “Michelangelo Pop” che indaga le influenze dei temi e dei metodi progettuali michelangioleschi sulla cultura architettonica e del design oltre la Modernità (opere di Bruno Zevi, Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Philip Johnson, Gaetano Pesce, Ricardo Bofill, Arata Isozaki, Frank O. Gehry, ecc.).

ABSTRACT: The article argues that the present dominance of the modernist design idiom, and the general aesthetic inferiority of existing non-modernist stylistic alternatives, is a consequence of the fact that design schools have for decades banished non-modernist visual idioms from their curricula. The author discusses original arguments for the single-style modernist regime of contemporary design schools, and contends that the modernist vision of a single unified style, which prompted the banishment, was rooted in a backward-looking effort to imitate the aesthetic unity of pre-industrial, aristocratic epochs. Against the received view of modernism as an expression of modernity, the author argues that the modernists were, on the contrary, intent on suppressing the key novel feature of the modern time: its pluralism in general and its aesthetic diversity in particular. It is further asserted that the design philosophy behind the modernist regime was largely self-serving, aimed at securing the modernists an educational and aesthetic monopoly. The author pleads for transforming the modernist design education into a modern one, where a pluralism of aesthetic idioms and positions replaces the current one-style-fits-all approach.

The Christ Cathedral is the main church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County.  The Christ Cathedral is the former Crystal Cathedral, the building designed by Philip Johnson in Garden Grove (Orange County, California, 1977-1980).  The church lies just south of Interstate 5 South, within a residential area. Next to it are five other buildings — among them the older church designed by Richard Neutra in 1961 and a congress center by Richard Meier — entirely surrounded by parking lots. Two blocks northwest is Disneyland.

This is the text to the 20-minute video presentation available elsewhere on this site. It is from the 2021 US DoCoMoMo's National Symposium on May 27 (delayed from 2020 in Chicago). It explores the history and cultural situation of what may be the first International Style enclave of houses realized in the United States, designed by Alfred and Jane West Clauss, on edge of Knoxville Tennessee. Begun in 1939, the 5th of the planned ten houses was completed in 1943. The Clausses left the Knoxville area in 1945 to live and practice in the Philadelphia area. Their work, which is both fine and important, is absent from virtually every major overview of Modern Architecture. That said, the complex context of their work and its influence on some of America's most esteemed post-war architects, has yet to be properly situated within the larger and nuanced story of American modern architecture. This presentation is but a start. NB: In the presentation at DoCoMoMo, I misspoke, stating that Max Clauss (Alfred's cousin who held an important propaganda post for the Nazi regime) toured the US after the invasion of Poland; it was 1938. This presentation is also available on the US DoCoMoMo website.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, DC, is an institute of Harvard University dedicated to supporting scholarship internationally in Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and Garden and Landscape Studies through fellowships, meetings, exhibitions, and publications. Located in Georgetown and bequeathed by Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks welcomes scholars to consult its books, images, and objects, and the public to visit its garden, museum, and historic house for lectures and concerts.

The small, delicate pavilion intended for the expansion of Dumbarton Oaks Museum has been a work forgotten or feared by critics whose author, brilliant architect Philip Johnson, stood out at that moment as a strong advocate of the recovery of those values of History and the encounter of Architecture with Nature. His contact with Mildred Bliss and his experience in Dumbarton were decisive for the transformation that Johnson, a radical architect of steel and glass, went through.  The aim of this paper is to delve in disclose the values of this relevant relationship between Architecture, History and Landscape and vindicate this work as a key piece for understanding the critical review undertaken by modern architecture in the 1950s.

En el contexto de la revisión crítica de la modernidad arquitectónica que se produjo en los cincuenta Philip Johnson destacó como activo defensor de la recuperación instrumental de la Historia. El pabellón para la ampliación del Museo de Dumbarton Oaks constituye en este sentido una pieza clave, olvidada o temida por la crítica, y en la que su contacto con Mildred Bliss resultaría decisiva. En este trabajo se analiza esta obra y las vicisitudes de su creación.

This essay is the first in a three-part series about ideology and space on AMC's lauded television show "Mad Men." See the attached link to "Flow"'s website, where the article was published, for embedded videos intended to be viewed alongside reading the essay.

In the first half of the twentieth century the dematerializing of boundaries between enclosure and exposure problematized the conventions and traditional expectations of the domestic environment. At the same time, as a space of escalating technological control, the modern domestic interior also offered new potential to re-define the meaning and means of habitation. The inherent tension between these opposing forces is particularly evident in the introduction of new electric lighting technology and applications into the modern domestic interior in the mid-twentieth century. Addressing this nexus point of technology and domestic psychology, the following essay examines the critical role of electric lighting in regulating and framing both the public and private occupation of Philip Johnson’s New Canaan estate. Exploring the dialectically paired transparent Glass House and opaque Guest House, this study illustrates how Johnson employed electric light to negotiate the visual environment of the estate as well as to help sustain a highly aestheticized domestic lifestyle. Johnson’s use of electric light to maintain the transparent exposure of the Glass House as well as to intensify the sensual interior landscape of the Guest House, when contextualised within the existing literature, provides a more complex understanding of the construction of two very different forms of domestic occupation within the New Canaan estate. Through this investigation, we are afforded a more nuanced understanding of Johnson’s process as an architect and a client, as well as the means with which he inhabited his own architecture.

Uno más en la masiva e ideológicamente filtrada migración intelectual provocada por el triunfo de los fascismos en Europa y la consiguiente Guerra Mundial, la trascendencia de Kaufmann en su destino americano seguirá un sorprendente camino doble. Las forzadas conexiones entre autores, actitudes y posiciones intelectuales de puntos muy distintos de la historia de Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier, provenientes de un contexto de oposición al nazismo encontrarán, en ausencia de una traducción que con la que corregir malinterpretaciones, una deformada pero muy influy-ente continuidad. Será a través de un Philip Johnson, precisamente exnazi, y de sus casas. En la primera de ellas, Kaufmann dará su primera conferencia en los Estados Unidos. La segunda, muy famosa, la concebirá Johnson basándose en una interpretación libre y adaptada a un muy distinto contexto de los conceptos de Kaufmann. Su alargada influencia sentará las bases de un primer postmodernismo e incluso de su posterior deriva hacia la star-architecture. Mientras tanto, y opuestamente, las investigaciones de Kaufmann en territorio americano se replegarán hacia el periodo de la Ilustración.

As yet another mind caught up in the mass ideologically filtered intellectual migration caused by the triumph of fascisms in Europe and the consequent World War, Kaufmann's transcendence in his American destination would follow a surprising double path. The forced connections between authors, attitudes and intellectual positions from very different points in the history of Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier, coming from a context of opposition to Nazism, would encounter, in the absence of a translation with which to correct misinterpretations, a deformed but highly influential continuity. This would be done through a Philip Johnson, precisely a former Nazi, and his houses. Inside the first of these, Kaufmann would give his first lecture in the United States. The second, very famous, would be conceived by Johnson based on a free interpretation of Kaufmann's concepts, adapted to a very different context. His long-lasting influence would lay the foundations for an early postmodernism and even for his later drift towards star-architecture. Meanwhile, and conversely, Kaufmann's research on American territory would withdraw towards the Age of Enlightenment.

La relación entre Mies y Johnson en las décadas centrales del siglo pasado configurará la arquitectura en su presente y futuro. Una relación tormentosa, que combina admiración y desprecio, compañerismo y competencia, pero que siempre estará regida por el mutuo interés. Veremos la doble transferencia de la gracia -la posición social privilegiada, dinero y buena cuna- de Johnson a Mies y de la gracia arquitectónica, de Mies a Johnson. Su gracia permitirá a Johnson acercarse al muy superior arquitectónicamente Mies, y vincularse a él aún a su pesar, o más bien a su total indiferencia. Veremos cómo, con el transcurrir del tiempo, la relación se vuelve más y más simbiótica, al tiempo que Johnson adquiere mayor poder y, contradictoriamente, mayor independencia por su permanente asociación con el maestro. Veremos, finalmente, como Johnson logra al mismo tiempo establecer su reinado independiente en el mundo arquitectónico americano, sobre las bases al mismo tiempo de la asociación y la ruptura con Mies. Un reinado cuyas ramificaciones llegan hasta hoy día y que tiene una representación física, en forma de aleturgia, en el Four Seasons del Seagram.

The relationship between Mies and Johnson in the central decades of the last century will shape architecture in its present and future. A stormy relationship, which combines admiration and contempt, companionship and competition, always governed by mutual interest. We will see the double transfer of grace -privileged social position, money and good birth- from Johnson to Mies and of architectural grace, from Mies to Johnson. His grace will allow Johnson to approach the architecturally superior Mies, and to bond with him even to his regret, or rather to his total indifference. We shall see how, with the passage of time, the relationship becomes more and more symbiotic, as Johnson acquires greater power and, contradictorily, greater independence through his permanent association with the master. We will see, finally, how Johnson succeeds in establishing his independent reign in the American architectural world, based at the same time on the association and the break with Mies. A reign whose ramifications reach to this day and which has a physical representation, in the form of alethurgy, in the Four Seasons of the Seagram.

Review of the masterplan for the JVC Cultural-, Convention- and Business Center in Guadalajara, Mexico, initiated by Jorge Vergara Madrigal (Grupo Omnilife). Featuring designs by Jean Nouvel, Teodoro Gonzales de Leon, Carme Pinos, Thom Mayne, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Philip Johnson, Daniel Libeskind, Enrique Norten (Ten Arquitectos), Todd Williams & Billie Tsien, Zaha Hadid and Toyo Ito. Copyright © Verlag Werk AG / Alex Aepli