The Residential Scope

          Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, and Mies Van der Rohe each definied the realm of modern architecture through the various residential designs developed throughout their individual careers. Le Corbusier's most iconic contribution to modern architecture would start with the Domino Frame.

Maison-Domino

In his design, the concrete frame is conceived as being independent of the spatial planning, rather than an embellished linguistic element. This independence frees the form from its traditional structural restrictions and is presented as an industrial item. He exmplifies this well in one of his first major works, the Citrohan House. This house is a pure geometric form. Corbusier's notion was that the architecture would become an expression of volume rather than mass, allowing the exterior to wrap around the structural skeleton as a thin membrane. 

Citro Han House - Le Corbusier

          Corbusier's later work seems to follow a similar pattern as the Citrohan House, yet exemplifies the progress Corbusier was having with his design style. In the Villa Savoye Corbusier seems to capitalize on his notions of Plan Domino. The house is raised on pilotis and appears a sa pure white prism floating above its landscape. Like the Citrohan house, the wall is but a thin membrane, cut by a continuous horizontal window. Corbusier was pulling away from the traditional notion that structure was something that defined the ascetics of a building. His long, horizontal windows were pushing the limits of his interior skeletal structure, suggesting that the modern structure was not limited to load-bearing walls. Moreover, the facade and plan in both his Citrohan House and Villa Savoye are exceedingly simple and free. 

Villa Savoye - Le Corbusier

          In his work later on in the century, Le Corbusier seemed to conceive his notions in a more vernacular form. However, the natural materials used by Corbusier are still interpreted in a modern asetic context. Unlike the Villa Savoye, projects such as the Villa de Mandrot intermix Corbusier's clean, geometric forms with rural overtones. Materials, such as stone, were now used to create Corbusier's geometric language and emphasized the intermixing of his modern architectural language with an emphasis on its relationship to the surrounding context.

Villa de Mandrot - Le Corbusier

          Mies Van der Rohe and Corbusier both played with the idea of plane, and pureness of form. However, in Mies' early work with neoclassical housing, he represents a vernacular ideal. The Riehl House exmplifies this vernacular thinking through the gabled roofs and choice of materials. The structure borrowed deavily from the illustrations of eighteeth-century vernacular-classical housing.

Wolf House - Mies Van der Rohe

As Mies continued to develop his style, he began to explore more into Constructivism. Here, projects such as the Wolf House allowed Mies to explore some of the fundamental problems posed by new techniques and materials. In the Wolf House, Mies is still using a vernacular medium, but in a very modern language. He is begining to understand the system of interlocking forms and planes to form spatial quality. His material selection and sturctural system, however, still remains attached to a vernacular tendency; load-bearing walls. 

Wolf House - Mies Van der Rohe

          In his later work, Mies begins to adopt similar ideals as Corbusier in structural configuration and general asthetic. His Tugendhat House begins to construct these revolutionary notions. Like the Riehl House, the residence is wedge into the sloping site. However, like Corbusier, Mies utilizes a long horizontal window that wraps around the entire lower level of the structure and encloses the living room. This element celebrates the house's internal structural system that allows the facade to be a free, malleable decision in the design. Moreover, Mies begins to simplify the overall ascetics, using simply polished materials for interior ornament and unembellished white planes to create the membrane. This simplicity in both exterior and interior decision began to advance modern architecture into a more contemporary era and allowed for a more dynamic architectural language.

Tugendhat House (Interior)

Tugendhat House (Exterior)

          In the late 1930's, Finnish Modernist architects, such as Alvar Aalto, began to question the mechanistic premises of the New Objectivity, returning to natural materials and traditional details. Aalto believed in creating unique metaphors for the movement. This notion is evident in his Villa Mairea where taut, curved walls faced with wood sidings are contrasted with sharp-edged brick walls painted white. Similar to Mies, Aalto combines different living zones within a single space; allowing for an almost interoperability within the interior. Screens of wooden poles in random clusters become metaphors for the pine forest extending beyond the wall-to-wall plate glass.

Villa Mairea (Exterior)

Villa Mairea (Interior)

Aalto's use of metaphors to bring his architecture into a modern context is also evident in his design for the Baker House Dormitory. This building was the first building of Aalto's redbrick period and was used to signify the Ivy League university tradition. The building uses curvilinear forms, but with naturalistic aesthetic overtones.

Baker House Dormitory - Alvar Aalto

 

          As Aalto developed his design methodologies, he began to be more sumptuous in his work. Refined materials such as marble facings began to replace the rustic brickwork he traditionally worked with. Moreover, the forms began to be more geometrically complex. In his Vuoksenniska Church, one can see his use of a more curvilinear facade and simplicity in material choice. Moreover, his expression of a more "membrane-like" and "blank" facade relates to the notions emerging from Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe at this time. Aalto's work, however seems to appreciate the naturalistic language of materials. His work centered around university and education facilities, which could also be seen as a motivation in his infatuation with material choice.

Vuoksenniska Church - Alvar Aalto

          All in all, these three architects began to develop a similar advancement in modern ideals. Breakthroughs in structural systems and fluidity of design allowed for an endless experimentation of architectural design. However, some of the key points remain that of an open, operable plan, a free facade, unembellished material choice, and internal structural systems.