The Modern House

        Our concept of a modern dwelling stems in large part from 20th century ideas about living. One of the largest contributors and architectural questioners of the time was Adolf Loos. Loos began to stem away from the previous notions of architecture as an embellishment of social responsibility and began to privatize spatial experience. His designs centered around the idea that public and private should be separate, stating that "the building should be dumb outside and only reveal wealth inside." This idea suggested that the private and public realms should convey their own distinct architectural language. At the same point in time when Frank Lloyd Wright was attempting to seamlessly join exterior and interior, Loos was doing the exact opposite and sanctioning off the two realms. For Loos the exterior was the public side of the house. His designs, such as the Steiner House attest to the simplicity and "plain-ness" the exterior was given. The exterior would almost seem neglected to designers of the previous century; having no ornamentation of any sort. Nevertheless, the stripped façade was rapidly assimilated into the formal purism of the 1920's and was the major reason for the success of the building.

 

Steiner House - Adolf Loos

        During the same time, the Wessenhofsiedlung Exhibition was taking place in Germany.   The exhibition included 17 of the greatest architects of the time. The purpose was for the designers to demonstrate their ideas and interpretations of the new image of the home. This event marked one of the defining moments of modern housing. House 13, for instance, was designed and constructed by Le Corbusier. Like Loos, Corbusier saw the simplicity and unembellished exterior facade as a testament to his notion of a free facade. This notion is evident in his design at the Wessenhofsiedlung Exhibition where simple planar surfaces create a shell for the structural systems of the dwelling. This idea of simplicity was a stepping stone in the modern movement and is still evident today. Houses began to be simple dwelling alcoves that did not need adorned ornamentation. Instead of embellished villas and estates, dwellings now became modulated units that could maintain a sense of individuality inside, yet maintain a uniformity on the exterior.

 Le Corbusier's Wessenhofsiedlung House (Left) and Loo's Steiner House (Right) both felt the modern house exterior should be an unembellished expression.

        Similarly, both Corbusier and Loo's saw the interior of the modern home as an expression of the user. Whereas previous notions articulated and sanctioned a strict order of the interior, modernism suggested that the interior be specific to the one living there. This expression of freedom and individuality in a house was executed in two ways. Loos does this in his Steiner House by converting the central hall into an open staircase and using diagonal views and vertical alignment to expand spatial volumes. Although many of his designs still have wall partitions to define the key realms of the dwelling, the spaces themselves allow for endless operable arrangements and develop an open spatial continuity throughout the plan.

  Loos uses a series of "open" spaces in plan to allow for interoperability for the user

        Le Corbusier was similar in his thinking. However, instead of using vertical expanses, Corbusier used the open floor plan. His internal structural system of columns allowed for an endless arrangement of spaces in his plan of House 13. Wall partitions are only used to sanction off bathroom, kitchen, stairs, exterior, and utility purposes. This was an abstraction from Loos' sanctioned, yet operable spaces, into a holistic operable structure. Nevertheless, both designers saw the interior spaces of a modern dwelling to be open and operable. Loos and Corbusier believed that the architect's job was to inspire the creativity in the user to design their own living space. In a way, this is how modernism began to evolve. Architect's began to define their spaces by the users of the space.

  Corbusier allowed a dynamic and operable spatial quality in all his floor plans. [yellow marks open spaces]

        At first glance, the two architects seemed to have a similar style to their architectural design. However, in closer examination one understands the vast amount of differences the two had in spatial quality, structural systems, and proportioning systems. Corbusier's House is simple in structural design: using ten structural columns to support and define his structure. The columns are divided into two rows, running the span of the structure. However, interestingly, the rows are placed asymmetrically when looking at the holistic design plan. This allowed for utilitarian purposes to be placed on the right side of the plan, while more functional living and operable uses could be accommodated on the larger right side.

 

  Corbusier's structural system allowed him to have large open floor plans that could be spatially defined by non-load bearing partitions.

  Loos structural system allowed him to have sanction off spaces in a vertical pattern throughout his house and define a more "open" space in the horizontal plane.

        Contrastingly, Loos chose to define his modern dwelling with an externally loaded structure. His load bearing walls of his Steinhouse are thick and allow for a limited amount of openness in plan. This structural choice is also a defining element in his sections of the dwelling. Because the walls serve as structural support for his multi-story building, the spatial sanctioning is continued vertically throughout the structure. In a way, however, this may serve as a complimentary idea that Loos had from Corbusier: that spatial openness must be limited to allow for a series of more and less private spaces within the interior realm.

        Loo's designs are thus determinant on his structural choice in both plan and elevation. However, because Corbusier was only partially limited in his open-floor plan design; it left the facade and spaces to be defined more deliberately. Corbusier was a believer in the golden section; that everything developed around a specific and reoccurring proportioning system. This "golden ratio" is embellished in his placement of spaces, as well as glazing placements in his Wessenhofsiedlung House. Both Loos and Corbusier had strong ideas about glazing placement and proportion. 

 Corbusier utilized the golden ratio in a multitude of scales to define proportion, spatial quality, and functional use

        However, whereas Corbuiser embellished his loved for the golden ratio and alignment in his design, Loos used the spatial experience in the individual interior spaces to proportion his glazings. The combinationQA of both of these comes to define windows in a modern context. No longer were apertures symmetrical references to an exterior facade, but rather were an element of their own and a lens into the spatial experience of the interior. 


All in all, these architects explored three major ideas surrounding the modern dwelling: 

• Exterior "plainness"
• Interior Operability
• Structural/Glazing Proportioning. 

These ideas are still evident in modern house today and revolutionized the time period in which they were explored. They simultaneously linked uniformity and individuality into architectural design and ultimately allowed the user to become the architect.

References

Colquhoun, Alan. Modern Architecture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. Print.

Curtis, William J. R. Modern Architecture Since 1900. 3rd ed. New York: Phaidon, 2011. Print.

 Great Buildings Steiner House

House 13 Image