The floor plans
developed by Mies van der Rohe are unique from their counterparts of their time
yet they walk the lines of Modernism.
Although they follow the laws, they advance the principles and refine
what a modern building can become. It is
a refinement in simplicity that is designed to speak to a new world in the
emergence of new technology.
The first order of
business for Mies was to throw out all previous conceptions of the floor
plan. He was not the first to create the
free plan but he focused the idea to a very literal point. In order to do this, Mies first determined
that the room of a space did not influence the plan, nor is there any center to
the house. Frank Lloyd Wright’s “hearth”
is nowhere to be found. One of his first
famous works, The Country Brick House, keeps walls as structure but gives them
a new purpose. A single wall is not designed
to simply serve one space. Instead Mies
allows these planes to intersect the house and define multiple spaces. As this happens, the spaces themselves begin
to intersect not only visually but physically as well. It is no longer a matter of being in one
space and having the ability to see into another. This creates visual fluidity alone. Mies pushes the planes beyond the normal
point of termination. In plan, a
horizontal wall in one space is pushed to become a vertical wall in
another. This physically brings one
space into another by continuation of the material.
The Barcelona
Pavilion would be another refinement of Mies’ own ideals in regard to
plan. Corbusier’s point about the free
plan starts to take a very literal form.
Here, the column takes on the role of the wall and because of its
importance, it is decorated as such. The
walls become partitions to solely to define space. With the plan entirely free of any walls
needed to support the roof, partitions are placed in the most minimal of fashions
to simply define a space. This extreme
minimalism is liberating and free.
The 50x50 would have to
be the pinnacle of the free plan by Mies.
It is a total elimination of anything that is unnecessary. At this point, the plan does not say house. It says space, and that is what it is. Allowing the materials to be true, Mies
creates a plan that serves its purpose at the most basic level a building can
function which is to physically contain.
Visually, there is no containment, and the person is on display or
rather nature is on display for the user.
One could argue that
this expression is designed to speak to the struggling culture and economy of
Germany. It says that through new
innovations and technology, the German nation can be liberated. It follows the tradition that Mies has been
schooled in which is that of efficiency through technology. Mies allows his steel columns and solemn
partitions to stand for what they are and not stray from their purpose in a
building.
--
The floor plan
of Le Corbusier carries the ideals of an open plan but approaches the issue in
a dramatically different way than Mies van der Rohe. In order to understand the plan of Le
Corbusier, one needs to understand his paintings from before. At first glance they appear random, quirky,
and distorted. But as one who can
reflect after knowing the style of Corbusier, there is a pattern or system that
starts to come to the foreground. There
is a method of proportioning that is very evident that brings order to the
piece. It seems that this system and way
of organizing space would follow Corbusier into his method of creating the plan
as an architect.
Let us examine Villa la Roche and Ville la Savoye. Corbusier does in fact stick to his own
principle of the open floor plan. At
first it appears that the spaces determine how the entire building is composed
and the interior walls help form the structure.
In fact, this appears to be the opposite. The plan is opened in the Villa Savoye by
allowing a grid of columns to bear the weight of the building. Villa la Roche uses a series of columns embedded
in the walls to create the open plan.
Now Corbusier is able
to place walls, or partitions rather, where he sees fit to define a space. When looking at the plan by itself, there is
nothing open about it. Many of the
spaces appear to be closed and sectioned off from one another. When the plan is moved into section, one can
see how visual penetrations of spaces occur.
By being in one room but seeing into another allows the user to feel a
larger sense of space.
The issue remains
however, if partitions are freely placed but appear to close off space, how are
the spaces organized? I believe they are
organized according to Corbusier’s mathematical scheme of dividing and ordering
space. It appears Corbusier thought that
strict patterns, mathematical formulas, and proportions could lead to good
design given the designer felt it was indeed good in the end. He did not want to allow a space to exist simply
happen because it fits. Order was given
to everything including his plan for both la Roche and Savoye.
What Corbusier also
included in his free plan for both buildings was a center point. There is not a load bearing mass or central
column in the center of these to villas but rather a void. This void allows for the movement of people,
thus he is putting the human at the center of the design. It is from the atrium or the stairway that
the rest of the plan is centered around.
These ideas are
extremely rooted in the classics.
Proportions and ordering systems were typical of Greek
architecture. They informed the
structure to which a plan could then be designed. These systems can be found in the plans and
elevations of Greek temples. The idea of
the human center or holy center is also common in Greek architecture but goes
back even further and across the globe.
Corbusier is attempting to revive these lost techniques of design and merge
them with modern technology and materials to create a new style of
architecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment