Looking forward/looking back

Maison La Roche is a house that is easy to see in. By seeing I mean, that it is a house whose interior comes together into almost effortless composition that give due credit to Le Corbusier’s masterful skill with a clean line. Though when we were given the assignment to take photos in the house that represented Le Corbusier’s sensibilities as a painter (pictures previously posted), I like everyone else had a hard time pulling my eye away from his clean lines in order to find the painter/sculptor’s eye amongst them. The flow of inspiration between Le Corbu’s architecture and his artwork is fascinating, and when you’ve had an opportunity to spend time in house like we were able to, you begin to see how those sensibilities match up and overlap. 

There was a similar occurrence at the Maison de Verre—it was pointed out that Pierre Chareau, a man with a discipline in interior architecture design, approached the design of the house of Madame Dalsace more like an interior or a piece of furniture than necessarily an exterior building. Whether that is the case or not, whatever drove him to push the possibilities of the façade and the interior of the house, it is quite the marvel. Once again, it was a distinct pleasure to see inside this house; though the residence wasn’t quite so spare (since it still is a private home) and it wasn’t a house of clean white lines, there were still elements of the house that were charming and had a strong compositional flow. 

The things that struck me about both places were these attempts to imbue social ideology into the design of the house. For Chareau, starting with something as simple as having everyone, visitor-patient-service, use the same entrance; for Le Corbusier, envisioning a whole new approach to architecture so that the world might have a renewed outlook after the devastation of World War I. Learning about the concepts behind their design decisions helped ground my appreciation for what I was seeing; it was no longer just an aesthetic quality I was responding to but the quality of the design’s transformative potential.

Natalie_The Star & The Arab Institute

The Star & The Arab Institute

I have decided to focus on the eight sided star in my research paper which will carry into my studio practice for the end of our trip. I discussed with Chris and Eric how the star popped up in many unexpected places throughout our trip here in Paris. Variations on the star,  like the five sided version, came up in churches/chapels and even at the opera. 

Here the star makes an appearance in the smallest parts of the "aperature" style windows at the Arab Institute.

Its difficult to see with the quality of this photograph but even the bolts in the water grates of the sidewalk had a star shape to them.  

Here the star shape is carried out throughout the courtyard tile

 

















Today I was also able to visit Mussee du Nassim Camando which is pictured above. Named after a son of the wealthy banker who owned and built the property, the Masion houses an amazing art collection from a prestigious family of the 20th and 21st centuries. I gathered that eventually the family did not make it past WW2 era, however when the father and owner of the property grew old he willed the estate to France in the 1920's.

Keri - Arab Institute & Glass House

Today was another cool architecture day. 

Arab World Institute 

The entrance

The amazing building with its aperture windows - they open and close like a camera depending on the sunlight (or they used to... we didn't get to see any of them move)

View from the top of the Institute. Amazing view of Notre Dame. 

Inside, staircase

The Glass House

Front of the glass house, same 5 principles of Le Corbusier 

We got a private tour of the building. Very exclusive with a GREAT tour guide. 

I've seen pictures of this house before but being in it and learning all the details behind it really engaged me. The owner still uses house so we were only allowed to take pictures of the outside of the building. I tried my darn-est to sketch and scribble down all the fun-functional-facinating facts. 

The front glass is not the original glass, it had to be replaced. Also, an old lady lived on the top floor who did not want to move, so they built around her. 

Backyard, Andrew - English architecture researcher tour guide extraordinaire, floodlights keep the privacy 

sketches sketches sketches. Notes notes notes. The whole house had movable parts like stairs that came apart so you could wash them. Hygiene and movability were big principles through out. 

The original was a gynecologist who specialized in infertility, so his wife had the windows so you could only see the tops of the trees in case her kids were out in the backyard. The grand staircase was grand and it led from the office/operating room to the living spaces. The glass wall provided a lot of beautiful light in the salon upstairs. 

The house was a treat to visit, and so custom made. 

bye! 

"I'm in a glass case of emotion"

Le Cartier and Maison de Verre were both spectacular buildings that were made almost solely out of glass and steel. You don’t find many buildings such as these in the US or in the world. I shouldn’t be combining these buildings together in a post, but I just love the architecture of glass buildings!

Maison de Verre’s exterior has circular glass blocks that form into panels. The glass however, has a transparency that blocks from someone viewing from the outside. It was considered, “private”, but on the inside held a wonderful display. Unlike the La Roche House, Maison de Verre’s interior was shown like nothing had changed from the 1930’s. Furniture was all in place and in pristine condition. It blew my mind that the house had desks from 1919 that looked like it wasn’t affected by any disaster or decay. There was this great staircase in the back of the house that was made completely out of black cement with cage. They way it turned reminded me of eerie stairwell. I think the most awesome thing about the house, was that it was able to light up at night via lights shining down on it. In all, the house had some qualities that was reminiscent to the Deetz house from Beetlejuice.

Cartier’s structure was nothing like I ever seen. Metal beams held together the building off the ground, something that was seen at the Branely. But instead of giving privacy to the offices above the Ron Mueck exhibition, the glass clear as day to the street. Of course before I get scolded for going on about the building in general, I should probably do a brief summary of the assignment given at the Mueck exhibition.

As a group we had to conclude a theme to his gallery. On top, there was a general theme of sacrifice. It shown people and things in these instances where they had to give up to support another. One thing that stood out from the rest was this chicken strung up from the ceiling. It was plucked and looked to be ready to cook. From a far, I had no idea what it meant and thought it was the strangest thing. But looking closer, I saw that the chicken had damp eyes and a single drop of water on the tip of its beak. It looked like it had cried in its last minutes of life before being sacrificed for human consumption. Though the top floor exhibition primarily shown human sacrifice, you kind of forget that animals go though the same thing. Whether it’s for the same species or differ.   

Day 19 - Arab Institute & Maison de Verre

I’ve really been enjoying the pace of the last few days-I feel like I’m finally having a bit of time to reflect and think about how this trip has started to shape me and the my art. Today, going to the Institut du Arab and seeing the AMAZING aperture glass windows that opened and closed just like a camera to let light in was a really great experience.

I saw how photography could be manifested within architecture, which I never thought I could be done.

I also really enjoyed going to the Maison de Verre, and seeing how light emanated throughout this house I normally am not attracted to the design of a house and the objects that occupy it, but the functionality as well as the story behind it all was what really intrigued me. The fact that it has undergone so many different stages is really amazing. Going from a gynecology office and home, to now a museum/home is so bizarre and beautiful.

My favorite part of the house was the fact that it included little moments where design encompassed common courtesy-the way that the doorknob was designed within the doctor’s office made it so that the doctor had to bend down and bow slightly to say goodbye to the woman who was leaving, to be respectful.  

One of my other favorite parts within the house was when we were inside the waiting room, and Andrew, the man who was showing us around the house, was describing why the windows were so much higher than expected. When you’re sitting down, you’re staring at the textured Nevada Glass tiles, but when you’re standing up you are able to see into the garden. He said that the doctor did this intentionally, due to the fact that the majority of his clients were dealing with infertility and didn’t want them to be seeing his children playing in the garden while they were waiting for their appointment. That attention to emotion within design is honestly something I never thought about until today and I think it made me aware of just how much it is capable of conveying and doing. Little things like that within the house is what really set it apart from a lot of what we’ve seen so far.

When we got back to the hostel later on, it started to downpour… just a few pictures. I don’t think I’ve seen it rain that hard in the longest time. 

Maison de Verre

Maison de Verre 

All I can say is that this house was probably one of the most beautiful modern houses I have ever seen. I love that the house was both meticulously planned out and full of sporadic decisions influenced by the clients. Our tour guide was a true gem too. I loved all of the background he was able to give us about the house and I thought the role playing was amusing. I thought it was a bit funny though that he definitely was under the assumption that we were all architecture students. 

Back to the house though, I really wish we would have been able to take pictures. I could have sat in it for hours just taking in the gardens and the light coming in from the glass brick wall. I think what I loved so much about it was that it definitely was a very modern home but you could definitely still feel and as weird as this sounds smell that it was a home, and a place that you could feel comfortable living. It wasn’t a cold building like you might

expect it to be. 

I unfortunately didn’t get to take too many notes because I was far too busy listening to our tour guide and trying not to miss any detail of the house because it had so many hidden details to it.