Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

"Less is more"

German Architect, took the American nationality (Aix-la-Chapelle, 1886 - Chicago, 1969). His father was a craftsman, and gives him a taste for the ideal of technical perfection.

Short Chronology :

Mies Van der Rohe starts working as a draftsman in the early 20^th C. He works for a furniture designer between 1905& 1907 (Bruno Paul) and for Peter Behrens between 1908 and 1911 (where he’s introduced to neo-classicism and to some modern techniques).

1921-1925 : head of the Architecture Department of the November Gruppe.

Influenced and part of De Stijl movement : interest for the ideal of this group : studies of proportions based on the interactions between verticality and horizontality

In 1926, he is part of a group project with Le Corbusier et Walter Gropius and they conceive the Weissenhof lot in Stuttgart (1927).

Weissenhot lot in Stuttgart (1927)

In 1928-29, the Spanish Pavilion for Barcelona’s exhibition the same year is built according to his plan. It’s a technical feat : the load-bearing walls are replaced by poles, and circulation can be organized and modified freely thanks to screens that replace the walls. At the same time, he contributes to the foundings of industrial design by drawing a line of furnitures resorting to steel instead of traditional materilals.

1930-1933 : Mies Van der Rohe is the head of the Bauhaus movement up until it gets closed by the Nazis. His production in that period is more limited. He flees Germany in 1937 for the US, where he’s soon offered to become the head of the IIT’s Architecture department. He builds buildings for rhe Institute using apparent steel poles. He conceives other monuments throughout the US, from the Seagram Building in NYC, to the Federal Center of Chicago.Soon before his death, he designed the new Fine Arts Museum of Berlin (1968)

What does MVDR’s carrer show about the unclear boundaries between Art, Design & Architecture?

-Although MVDR’s work is not art per se (as something which status is affirmed by its uselessness and absence of practical functions) and relies heavily on engeneering, he influenced the German artistic life of his time and adhered to ideological streams that transcended traditional boundaries between human cultural & artistic practices.

-His job at the head of the Bauhaus movement constrained to him to deal with politics in a way that is often considered to be the Fine Arts’ turf. Indeed, although he came in power there with the goal of depoliticizing the school and clearing it of its communists, he nonetheless had to negociate and oppose to the Nazis who managed to close the school definitively in 1933.

-The creation of the Novembergruppe was also linked to the Weimar Republic and its expressionist style blurred the boundaries among a group of artists ranging from writers (Bertolt Brecht) to painters (Otto Dix), musicians and architects (Gropius, MVDR). Moreover, the Novembergruppe, De Stijl, and Bauhaus, groups to which MVDR felt close to, all had social ambitions at the vanguard of 20^th C art, seeking to reconcile art and cratfsmanship so as to propose an artistic response to social issues and to invent entire lifestyles.

-Hence, MVDR’s career is perhaps one of the rare paths which can be sanctified just like art would be in spite of the fact ascetic functionality was at the core of his aesthetic.

-MVDR puts an end to the house's defined boudaries and closedness with its environment. This innovation can be compared to Mondrian's approach to painting and his decision to hang his canvases by one of their corners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXGHTTHZq-o&feature=related

Mies Van der Rohe and his cantilever chair

Another thing that must be noticed about Mies can der Rohe is his use of new techniques and materials. This use is crucial in blurring boundaries and expressing a vision of architecture.
MVDR gives up the use of bearing walls. He uses steel pillars instead wich allow his buildings to be lighter. There are only light screens that keep the building open and do not give the impression that the building is a box. This is particularly clear for the German Pavilion or the Stugendhat house.
Moreover,MVDR uses a lot the cantilever technique, notably for his roofs which are almost floating in the air and do not seem to be supported by anything. This allows him to give the impression that the outside is a prolongation of the inside and that is very important in his architecture.
Finally, he uses the very fashionable tecnhique of tubular steel that he applies to a cantilever. That gives the chairs that Morgane will talk about.

Cantilever Chair (1927)

The Cantilever Chair

- created for the exhibition "The Dwelling" shown at the Weissenhof housing estate in Stuttgart, Germany

- use of new techniques (tubular steel) -> will to express the modern age

- building of an archetype

- comparison with Mart Stam's and Marcel Breuer's ones

Bless : between fashion & design

Bless was created in 1997 in Berlin by Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag, two German designers.

They are unconventional and don't want to become celebrities (there are no pictures of them).

Expression & Signification

This cable brings out the multiple use we can do of Bless's cable jewelry. Although it has been designed with clear allusions to jewelry, it has more than the decorative function of traditional jewels, and it is not (only) meant to serve on the human body. These cables have been transformed into an aesthetic object thar can be desplayed in an interior. It puts emphasis on an element which is usually hidden, and renews our vision of it.

The cables below have a more ambiguous functionality. The use of small beads suggests they can be worn as necklaces.

Their uniqueness enhances their value for the owner. Interactions with the brand Bless (bringing one of your cables to their boutique) account for the creation of a unique piece of art, somewhere between jewelry and design, the original object somewhat being stripped out of its genuine utility by the ornaments.

Wearing or displaying these cables also suggests to the world something about your lifestyle and taste. Although it is one of Bless's least expensive items, it is also one which shows the brand's radical approach to fashion, being both a challenge to wear, making reference somewhat to Native Art, and proposing an artistic reflection on a piece of furniture that completely invade modern interior. These cables, the possibility of having several of them, suggests a possible transformation of modern interior, which goes beyond what we usually expect of fashion.

Bless's cable jewellery

Urban Glass House - Philip Johnson

Who was Philip Johnson ?

Why did we choose the Urban Glass House?
What is Philip Johnson’s view of design? What was its evolution?
How is this vision linked to the glass house?
He was an American architect born in 1906, he died in 2005.
He studied at Harvard philosophy and history but began to concentrate on architecture after a trip to Europe.He analyzed the architecture international style in the pre-war period and experienced different ways of understanding the aims of architecture, from modernism to post-modernism.
He was really influenced at the beginning of its career by Mies van der Rohe with who he designed the Seagram Building in New York which is very simple and minimalist.

The urban glass house was the last project of Philip Johnson
It comes back to the idea of Glass House of Philip Johnson. He designed his house in Connecticut as a glass box.Therefore we thought that this building would be a good way of understanding Johnson’s work.
Philip Johnson studied the “international style architecture” in Europe in his early days (1930s) and he found out that (1) solidity was not guaranteed any more by mass and architecture was more and more based on volume and lightness (2) symmetry was rejected (3) along with decoration. It traduced both a minimalist spirit (“Less is More”) and modernism because buildings were trying to escape previous canons.
He based his first works on this view of design (e.g. Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany; Seagram Building)Then he moved (as everyone: cul-de-sac of modernism) to postmodernism notably with the AT&T building with a Chippendale Wardrobe top (Manhattan).
He opposes to the heavy metallic building appearance and prefers light and pure design with glass as a predilection raw material.
We will understand the links in more details later on with the analysis of the building.
Basically, the minimalist view is well represented by the absence of ornamentation, the purity of design and the simplicity of forms.
The Urban glass house reveals a modern design coupled with the idea of cubes with which you can play and build a pile such as with Lego®

To see all his work: http://www.pjar.com/projects_type_theaters.html (website of Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Architects)

Style and originality

Glass buildings and scrycrapers are usually office buildings or mall buildings, but this time it a residential building
Large pillars and finer pillars, the former is on what the building rests and the later has only aesthetical function.
The external walls are all windows
It contrasts with the neighboring buildings. Classical brick-made buildings:

It has a light and airy look

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Expression

As its name says, this building is a house. It is made to live in, in one of the 39 flats or in the penthouse.

But Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie wanted to do more than a simple house. They highlight one characteristic of the house that is to be a shelter. People inside have a lot of lights thanks to these large glass windows but people outside cannot see inside, they only see the reflection of the facing buildings. So it gives the inhabitants an impression of protection in this busy city. Alan Ritchie says it well: “the outcome is a calm, ordered residential building that will provide a wonderful sense of refuge, a haven of quiet elegance and privacy within New York City."

Signification

When people are looking for a house, they want to like it and to be able to live well in it but they are also considering what the house says about them. Indeed a house represents who live in. So what does the urban glass house say about its inhabitants?

It says they are sophisticated. First because of the style of the urban glass house that is elegant thanks to its pure lines. This impression of elegance applies to the people who live in. Secondly, the inhabitants look sophisticated because they live in a famous building by a famous architect. So it means that they are cultivated, that they know the reference to the glass house of Philip Johnson and to the international style.

So as the building is elegant and the product of a well-known architect, its inhabitants seem sophisticated. But the Urban Glass House says another thing about them. It says they are wealthy. Indeed, they can afford to live there.

These two conclusions about the inhabitants of this building lead me to my last point. The Urban Glass House is a luxury building. Indeed, as it costs a lot to live there, it becomes a signal of privileges and thanks to its sophistication we can guess the connoisseurship of the inhabitants, as Chippendale’s work did for the Dumfries. So clearly even if everybody can admire it walking in the street, the building is for the elite. Indeed “the mass” cannot enjoy the main function of the building as the impossibility to see inside from the street symbolically suggests.

The Urban Glass House

330 Spring Street in SoHo, New York - The building is at Washington Street and is very close to West and Canal Streets. Philip Johnson, Alan Ritchie

Medium and Value - Eléonore

"These homes were expressly created to address new modes of living, and with a recognition that the greatest luxury consists of perfect proportions, carefully chosen materials, attention to every detail, and the most exquisite craftsmanship."

The interior designer, "Ms. Selldorf used a palette of black, gray and silver and matte and reflective surfaces in the interiors. "The honed black granite surfaces, stainless steel counter tops on the kitchen island, and the anthracite color of the cabinetry add up to an expression of utilitarian elegance," according to the project's website, which added that "dark gray limestone...sets a tone of minimalist purity" in the bathrooms."

Glass is also an obviously important material. The windows are made of five panels of glass ; in some stairs, the corner apartement resemble a glass cube.

The floor is in white oak, an expensive wood, organised in a chevron pattern designed by the interior designer.

Something very important to remember about this building and its apartment is the luxury of the materials used, which adds value to these apartments. The best example is probably the kitchens : Selldorf had them designed by Bulthaup, the prestigious kitchen brand, with an initial price aorund 20,000$.

Philip Johnson

Some info about Philip Johnson:

Philip Johnson (1906-2005) was an American architect .He studied philosophy at Harvard University and interrupted his education several times to go to Europe. It was there that he discovered architecture: he was commissioned by the creator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), Alfred Hamilton Barr, to find the trends in modern architecture. In 1932, he became head of the department of architecture at MoMa. With Barr and Hitchcock, he created the exhibition Modern Architecture: International Style. The publication of the book by Hitchcock and Johnson The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 followed. These two works were very influential.

He did some politics. He was a great admirer of Mies Van Der Rohe's monumentality, purity and tenuous connections with classicism.

From 1946 to 1951, Johnson had his own office in partnership with Landes Gores.

First famous work: in 1949, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut (http://philipjohnsonglasshouse.org/)

At the beginning he was influenced by architects of the international style but when it had become commonplace in America he turned away from it. He was iconoclast and his position was quite complex. "He promoted then subverted the international stylen did teh smae to Post-modernism, and repeated the feat with Deconstructivism."

1988: curator of the exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture at MoMa.

"All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space." Philip Johnson

If you want to know more about him:

https://acces-distant.sciences-po.fr/http/www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t1.e2472&srn=2&ssid=687778195#FIRSTHIT

Some long interviews:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/6090

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh1H3oSpXgY

About Jasper Morrison and boundaries

Jasper Morrison not only graduated in design in an engineering school (Kingston polytechnic design School) but also at the Royal College of Art.
But does he consider himself as an artist or a designer? In fact, Jasper Morrison is someone rather inconspicuous. Rather than considering his work as an art as such, he prefers emphasizing the importance of design as a way of enhancing the utilitarian functions of an object.

However, if he does not blur the boundary between the designer and the artist, he really blurs a lot of other boundaries.

His two diplomas rather help him blurring the difference between the designer and the engineer, which makes the fact that he puts a stress on utilitarian aspects all the more true. With the Basel Chair, he wants to create a comfortable chair and he adapts the classic wooden chair with synthetic elements to reach this aim.

He also blurs the boundary between the analyst and the designer. With the “Take a chair” and the “Supernormal” exhibitions, he manages to establish a reflection on design, still based on the utilitarian and everywhere-fitting characteristic of design. The real artistic value of a well designed objects stems not from ornaments or luxury but rather from its daily-use suitability.

Time considerations are also blurred by Jasper Morrison, notably with the Basel Chair which is a renewed, modern version of a classic archetype: the wooden chair. Jasper Morrison likes to create objects that will be timeless.

Finally, Jasper Morrison blurs boundaries of culture. His objects are so pure, so sheer and simple that they transcend culture; they can be and are used everywhere in the world, whatever the culture. His exhibition “Supernormal” with Naoto Fukasawa is a good example of that vision. Objects that are displayed on the long table are used everywhere in the world and we do not even notice them because of a design we consider universal and which is first characterized by its utilitarian qualities.

Jasper Morrison - Basel Chair - Presentation

Presentation: Eleonore

Medium and Value: Morgane

Style and Originality: Adrien

Expression and Signification: Nathan

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Medium

When you look at this chair, it seems to be a classic wooden one. But actually there is a crucial innovation: it is not only made of wood but also of plastic. I will explain that by saying how we can reproduce it.

You have to take a piece of beech from which you make the base frame of the chair it means everything that is beige. (Picture: red Basel Chair) Then to make the seat and the backrest, you need ASA plastic (acrylonitrile styrène acrylate plastic) dyed throughout. But there is a very notable way to join the plastic elements to the wooden base. While the thin plastic seat is fixed to a load-bearing wooden ring by an ingenious plug-in mechanism – without the use of any screws – the back features two web-like vertical projections that are inserted into precision-milled grooves of the elongated rear chair legs. As a last detail, you can add glides for carpets or alternatively felt glides for hard surfaces. Of course, you can use different types of beech and different colors of plastic but it is Adrien that will talk about that later on.

Thus, you know how to reproduce a Basel Chair but I’m quite sure you prefer that someone else does it and then you go and buy it when it is finished. So for that we have to see the quantitative aspect value of the Basel Chair to know a little more about the production and distribution.

Value

The Basel Chair is designed by Jasper Morrison for Vitra. It is Swiss manufacturer. According to their web site (http://www.vitra.com), it “is a furniture company dedicated to developing healthy, intelligent, inspiring and durable solutions for the office, the home and for public spaces.”

The Basel Chair is produced in Germany, in one of these two production sites: Weil am Rhein or Neuenburg. They don’t say a lot about the production of the Basel Chair, for example I find nothing about the costs of production but I look around and it seems that beech and ASA plastic are not very expensive. But Vitra really insists on its efforts when it comes to sustainability. In their website, they have a whole part about it and in the instructions for use of the Basel Chair they say “We prioritize the long service life of our products, seek to ensure that parts subject to wear and tear can be easily exchanged, and wherever possible use recyclable materials.” It also matters for Jasper Morrison that thinks designers have to create products that must last: “Thanks to the explosion of media coverage, much of today’s design is eye candy, looking for its place on the page of glossy magazines rather than solving any problems or addressing the bigger picture of what makes a successful design in the long term.” Jasper Morrison in an interview for Vitra, available in the website of the company.

Now, these efforts to create a sustainable product seduce you and you want to buy it. In the website of Jasper Morrison (http://www.jaspermorrison.com/html/9316679.html), they give the address of a shop: 24b Kingsland Road London E2 8DA. You can also go to the webside of Vitra: you give your country, your region and they direct you to a local dealer that you can contact to know the price and the availability of the product. But you can also buy it online. It is around 320 euros or £220, £240 on website as http://www.lamenuiserie.com in French or http://momentumstore.com/ where there is a discount if you are interested.

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Style and originality

One can easily think that this chair looks like any classical and sober wooden chair. One might think that it has no personality. Nothing could be more false.

Let’s have a more precise look at it.

First both the bottom and the back are finer than the usual, thanks to the plastic material. This makes it more comfortable.

In addition, the shape makes it hard for the sitter to slip over: the back is curved and the bottom too, ready to receive the sitter.

Furthermore, the bottom is maintained stuck with the wooden structure without screw: they fit together. A similar principle is used to make the back and the back feet fitting together.

The absence of obvious screw gives the Basel chair a smooth personality. It looks sweeter than an classic kitchen chair.

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Expression

What is it used for and how does it function?

As a chair, I think everybody knows what the Basel Chair is used for… Maybe as… a chair…

We have seen with Adrien and Morgane that this chair is particularly comfortable so that that you maybe use it more than other chairs but I don’t know exactly what your relation with chairs is…

The instructions for use of the Basel Chair say: "In compliance with due diligence and the law Basel Chair may be used as an office swivel chair only. Should it be used for other purposes there is an increased accident risk (e.g., use as a climbing aid)."

We see the importance of using the object not only as an art object and that makes me come to the most important of my part about expression in which we will actually see how Morrison puts a stress on the importance of the design object first as an everyday life object.

Signification

A complete concept design is expressed through the Basel Chair. In short, Morris concept of design has the following characteristics:

Objects must be functional, creations are not only visual but are also objects with which we live and that we use (à Organization in 2009 (Arts décoratifs) of the exposition “take a seat” in which visitors can seat on 21 different chairs, not only look at them). The Basel Chair is functional, it is comfortable and simple.

Object must be authentic and simple. Morrison is an inconspicuous designer. His Basel Chair is a revisited version of a classic the wooden chair. It is rather simple and sober. In this video we can see how he emphasizes the importance of usefulness of the object. He also considers that object should not be spoilt with ornaments and we can see that with the Basel Chair. With that conception, he is in line with the Japanese Mingei movement (1920s 1930s in Japan = objects must be used by the masses, functional in daily life etc.) and with the views of Adolf Loos (end of the 19^th century Austrian designer who puts a stress on the fact that modernity implies deletion of ornament).

This concept of design expressed through the Basel Chair is embodied in the concept of supernormal design.

“Design, which is supposed to be responsible for the man-made environment we all inhabit, seems to be polluting it instead. Its historic and idealistic goal to serve industry and the happy consuming masses at the same time, of conceiving things easier to make and better to live with, has been side-tracked.”

Pleasure and signification that is given to objects does not entirely come from design but also from their day-to-day use. That is why with Naoto Fukasawa (Japanese guy who designed electronic devices) they created the exposition super normal that was in Bordeaux Last Year.

The Basel Chair is something that conveys well this point of view. As opposed to current “design objects”, the Basel Chair also gives pleasure through its use. We can say that beyond the normal vision of the chair, the Basel Chair is supernormal…

To conclude my part I would like to wonder why this chair has been given this name “Basel Chair”. Is it an allusion to the city of Basel which is known for modern art.