<translation>Edith Farnsworth House</translation>
Farnsworth House was built as a weekend retreat for the wealthy, enterprising, and independent Dr. Farnsworth. The house is the only private residential structure that the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe constructed in the States. Farnsworth House serves as an instructive lesson in the limitations of photography in conveying sensory, kinesthetic, and spatial feelings.
The house is located on a vast plot of land in close proximity to the Fox River. The surrounding garden is conceived as a luxurious naturalistic work, designed by American landscape architect Lanning Roper. The garden features high-quality sculptural works, with the house without a foundation taking the spotlight. The cylindrical inner core stabilizes the entire lightweight structure of the house, and the white color of the structure contrasts with the surrounding lush greenery. Anticipating possible floods, Mies elevated the living space 5 feet above ground level, which later proved to be insufficient, as the house was severely damaged during one of the floods.
We enter the house via very comfortable stairs interrupted by an outdoor deck. The entrance to the house is very gradual and expresses Mies's favorite motif of the interplay between exterior and interior, as seen, for example, in the Brno Tugendhat Villa. The actual entrance to the house is not very noticeable, as the 100% transparency of the exterior skin does not create classic feelings of an enclosed interior space. We can calmly state that Farnsworth House blurred the line between interior and exterior, making it entirely uninhabitable. Here, form has triumphed over function, yet the gesture is magnificent. The form of the house partially follows Japanese influences in architecture, with this relationship being particularly evident in the geometric order of the house and its relationship to the flowing neighboring river.
Dr. Farnsworth did not use the house much; in 1972, it was purchased by British Lord Palumbo, who furnished the house with Mies's furniture and used it as a private retreat despite the generous opening of the house to its surroundings. Farnsworth House is an extraordinary utopian dream that appears all the more unusable in relation to the scattered houses in the neighborhood.
The house is located on a vast plot of land in close proximity to the Fox River. The surrounding garden is conceived as a luxurious naturalistic work, designed by American landscape architect Lanning Roper. The garden features high-quality sculptural works, with the house without a foundation taking the spotlight. The cylindrical inner core stabilizes the entire lightweight structure of the house, and the white color of the structure contrasts with the surrounding lush greenery. Anticipating possible floods, Mies elevated the living space 5 feet above ground level, which later proved to be insufficient, as the house was severely damaged during one of the floods.
We enter the house via very comfortable stairs interrupted by an outdoor deck. The entrance to the house is very gradual and expresses Mies's favorite motif of the interplay between exterior and interior, as seen, for example, in the Brno Tugendhat Villa. The actual entrance to the house is not very noticeable, as the 100% transparency of the exterior skin does not create classic feelings of an enclosed interior space. We can calmly state that Farnsworth House blurred the line between interior and exterior, making it entirely uninhabitable. Here, form has triumphed over function, yet the gesture is magnificent. The form of the house partially follows Japanese influences in architecture, with this relationship being particularly evident in the geometric order of the house and its relationship to the flowing neighboring river.
Dr. Farnsworth did not use the house much; in 1972, it was purchased by British Lord Palumbo, who furnished the house with Mies's furniture and used it as a private retreat despite the generous opening of the house to its surroundings. Farnsworth House is an extraordinary utopian dream that appears all the more unusable in relation to the scattered houses in the neighborhood.
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Válcové jádro?
Matěj Koníček
21.06.13 09:39
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