Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Architecture (at last)





These are the three buildings that have most influenced me. (cliched, yes, but they truly are the most significant). La Roche Jeanneret House by Le Corbusier, Maison de Verre by Pierre Chareau, and the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van De Rohe. What do they happen to have in common? All were designed and built in the twenties and look pretty much stylisticly timeless, if not spanking new, but for the details such as single glazed steel windows in the La Roche Jeanneret House. I came across the first two when I was a first year student, and didn't know who the architects were. The Mies' Pavilion was a surprise: I saw it for the first time only a couple of years ago, but though it had influenced much of what I liked, this was the real thing. I was very moved. What's missing from the usual list? Frank Lloyd Wright, anything pre 1900, and anything from the last fifty years! Close seconds in terms of influence at the time I first came across them would then be Stirling's Cambridge library, Mackintosh's Hill House, Angeli by Morphosis, the Pantheon, Meier's Smith House, Richard Padovan's house in Richmond, and, (cringing now), Graves' Sunar Showroom in New York circa 1981(?).

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I happened on the German Pavilion (relica, apparently) while riding the Bus Turistica around Barcelona. We begged the driver to stop and jumped off. Simply stunning. I get goosebumps just thinking of standing in the place, in awe. Utter stillness.

5:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oops, replica

5:26 PM  

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