Uncovering the Controversy and Innovation of Mies Van der Rohe's Masterpiece: The Farnsworth House
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
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Discover the revolutionary design and thought-provoking controversy surrounding the iconic Farnsworth House. Built by renowned architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, this modernist masterpiece reflects the transformation of Western society through its unique blend of technology and art. Explore the concept of adaptable spaces and learn about the challenges faced during the construction of this week-end getaway. Join us on an in-depth journey of one of the most significant buildings of the 20th century in this latest episode of This House.
Location: Plano, IL
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Photos from: National Trust for Historic Preservation
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You kind of brushed past Edith Farnsworth, a noted Physician who was reportedly considered for a Nobel Prise in Medicine. She sued Mies because of budget over run, not because she didn't enjoy the house - it was settled out of court.
Correct. The house ended up costing double the original planned budget, if memory serves me right.
Yes because the war had caused a shortage of building materials.
What a bore
They also battled a lot over the floor plan - Mies didn't want to include closets because they would diminish the open plan while Edith couldn't do without (I'd agree). I believe they also had an affair if memory serves. Mies and FL Wright were some serious characters.
I was lucky enough to tour the Farnsworth House and found it uniquely inspiring, not because of any sort of fame or prestige, but because the way the house was designed and situated creates a rare experience of light and views. The way the home floats over the surrounding landscape is serene, and I love how the spaces flow into one another. If you are ever in the Chicago area, please take time to visit! The society that maintains the house care deeply about the home and the story surrounding it, and work tirelessly to preserve the house so that we can enjoy it.
I conducted 437 tours of the house and enjoyed every one. You failed to mention the flood during Palumbo’s time where water broke a glass wall and damaged much of the furniture and interior as it was over 5’ deep
Maybe the architect and the client should have reconsidered building in a floodplain-- poor site planning?
He does mention it...... maybe watch the whole vid?????
@@JoeCool0510 main level of the house was set 2' above the 100 year flood level. Problem was lots of changes to the area in100 years caused the river to flood quicker than in the past.
@@alm4132 The flood mentioned was not the one that resulted in 5' of water in the house. Total was 15' above normal river level.
Final sale: The house sold at auction for $6MM.
I see this house all the time, I live in the same town where it resides. It's especially nice to walk in the state park on the other side of the river to get a nice view of it.
The Farnswoeth house is fabulous- I’d love to build something based on this design. I can now see where many New Zealand beach houses source their inspiration
Here in scandinavia too. Leisure time buildings,not permament family buildings
An early Fall tour of the house started with a short walk from the guest center. A clever move ( I hope ) was to place the center where the house is out of sight. As you walk through the open woods, the house reveals itself, its' relationship to the river, and to the surrounding woods. The approach is breathtaking, but then so id the house itself as you step up to the terrace.
She shouldn't have sued, but the house flooded with 2' of water only 2 years after it was built. I'd say Mies didn't do the best job anticipating and compensating for that 100 year event. I'd have been pissed off about that.
Wonder how the art collector who bought it next deal with the lack of wall space. Unless most of his collection was sculpture.
I'm glad it was saved. I can appreciate it as an art piece to look at. As a house to live in, not so much.
Thanks for this video!
She wanted the house in that spot , he proposed lifting it above the previous 100 yr flood plain , the new floods broke the 100yr flood plain , not his fault for giving the customer something safer than what she asked for
@@guysumpthin2974 She wasn't an architect or engineer. If he told her that spot wasn't buildable because of the danger of flooding due to the 100 year flood, and she insisted anyway, and he agreed to do it, it's on both of them but more on her.
@@Catbooks Yes, it was Palumbo's sculpture collection that was exhibited on the grounds. I recall that there was a large piece of the Berlin Wall, but not much else. Alas, the ravages of time.
Was never in this house, but saw it a lot growing up near Yorkville, and Plano, IL. We always just called it the glass house. It's not far from Silver Springs State Park near the Fox River.
We drive by the property quite often as the house is near the city we live. You can see the house easily during the Winter but during the Summer, it's protected by foliage. Lord Polumbo owned quite a lot of land and farms in the area. A friend of mine's sister took care of his horses. About a half mile away is where Indians fought in the Blackhawk Wars. You can find arrowheads in the ground to this day. Right across the river is the Silver Spring State Park.
It's beautiful. The support beams could definitely be about 6 feet higher and the terraces could be made to retract to be used as security when not in use. I would also give the southern exposure as the low roofline, graduating higher to the north for a sloping roof to better shed water.
This is a dreamhouse! I wood love to live in it, just think about being surrounded by nature. And winter!
Me too!
And the commonwealth Edison bill to heat a house with basically R-0 walls. I doubt the ceiling is much better.
I appreciate how bold and sleek it is, but it feels so un-cozy. Which, to me, is the ultimate aim of any house. It's like the architectural form of Wallace Simpson.
You can tell what the house feels like through the internet?
@@RAREFORMDESIGNS You look at it and try to imagine getting cosy. And I think Fauntleroy has it right. The structure is pretty enough but it isn't a place I would want to live. It's a pretty summer house to have a party at. But it isn't homey. You could never rest there.
I like it, but I would change the bedroom with just one window and wood walls with a TV. I would also replace other windows and add wood wall and bookshelves. Other than that just cozy it up with furniture, books, and blankets. Maybe change the curtains to a dark color, or patterns. It just needs something. You are right.
@@77Tadams I hope you get better soon and it's a good thing you're not driving or using heavy machinery right now.
@@RAREFORMDESIGNS 😏I am not drunk or sick! But this made me laugh! 😂
My building systems teacher once used this as an example of, "An architect's dream is an engineer's nightmare."
He was indeed a wise (and apparently experienced) man!
Profound
"you want me to put the kitchen WHERE!" When the carpenter wants you to do something you are pretty sure won't work,,,LMAO
Lol maybe but it helps to developp new technics of construction instead of always using same technics..dont you think so?
@@nishikapedro3796 No. unequivocally not.
Mies' famous quote, "Less is More" , is embodied in this house. Mies also said "God is in the Details"....again, the Farnsworth house couldn't be a better example of this expression. He was so far ahead of his time, he pushed the limits of glass technology when he started designing experimental glass houses and skyscraper projects early in his career. Look up the Barcelona Pavilion and all of the beautiful furniture he designed for that structure. His work is the epitome of modern elegance.
The original Barcelona Pavilion lasted for just a few years before it was dismantled. It was recreated for the 1992 Olympics. Well worth the visit.
Ahhhh, so he was Bauhaus.
Less is Less, don’t be conned.
@@bobmitchell8012 Some of us prefer the clean lines and elegance of Mies's work. I appreciate good design, whether it is a Greek temple, a Gothic church, or a modern museum, but good design goes much deeper than a bunch of do dads and brick-a-brack tacked on to a building.
I love this house and see the connection with the Barcelona pavilion.
I've seen a similar house of Mies in Barcelona. It turns 100 years old in a few years, but still looks modern and cool.
That would certainly be an interesting experience living in a home like this.
Hey Ken, I'd love to see you showcase something from my hometown of Denver.
Fun to see where Joseph Eichler found his inspiration!
I have been in many Eichler homes in Northern California
Thanks for sharing😊👍🏻
lovely cinematography.
In the summer, the house basically acted like a greenhouse, so that it was too hot. There was also a lack of ventilation, apparently.
So true jeff. It's not really a practical house to live in for the cost of it when built. And yes, ventilation was a problem also. The locals called it a one floor piece of Chicago's cloud scraper that Mr. Mies was busy building in the city also.
Thanks for highlighting this important piece of architecture. In your future videos please consider holding back on the neural upscaling, overlaid film scratches and other "enhancements" that obscure the condition of historical photos and video. Restoration can be amazing but getting it right is more work (and more specialized) than most of us are capable of. I would humbly ask that you use the best source you can find and then trust your viewers to understand the original frames in the context of the time they were captured.
I have the Lego Architecture set of Farnsworth, and continues to be one of my all-time favorite Lego sets.
Hmm, I wonder if there is any FLW leggo?
This is one of the most beautiful houses I've ever seen. I also love the Philip Johnson Glass House in Connecticut.
Great video, thank you! I just subscribed 🙏
The term "functional obsolesce" comes to mind.
I’ve never been to the house but I live nearby in Oswego IL also on the Fox River. I’ve passed by it on multiple occasions on the way to appointments in the area and there’s a beautiful State Park across the river which affords nearly unobstructed views of the home across the water.
Just love it
This would suit anyone Today. I would love to live in this house.
Beautiful looking house.
I like these simplistic/layout style houses, which offer up expansive (almost unlimited) 360-degree views of your surroundings. Gives you a sense of being outdoors, an inner private core (symbolizing your protective bubble, and your privacy/individuality), and protection from the elements.
I wonder how it functions from an energy/cost standpoint (for a single-person/couple dwelling).
Doctors and Lawyers are terrible clients.
Edith sounds like a piece of work. To bad the house wasn't set up about 2 or 3 feet higher.
Seems to me like a smaller version of Tugendhat Rohe did pre-war. Great little house though.
This is a beautiful house! I’d live there and enjoy the scenery!
Not merely "Edith Farnsworth, wealthy patron of the arts" but "Doctor Edith Farnsworth, successful Chicago nephrologist and professor or medicine".
I love this house. To hell with those people who championed urban sprawl complete with cul de sacs.
Can you do some of the case study houses?
My immediate thought on seeing this house is that it could not have been better designed as a bird killing machine, I'm sure the body count is many dozens per year. Huge walls of opposing panes of glass providing the illusion to birds in flight of a clear passage.
At 2:00 minutes you said the house was built above the 100 yr flood plain and then at 4:45 you said the house was filled with 2 feet of water. I'm confused.
This looks like a terrarium for housing people.
That's wild! She had guts...
Ironically, Phillip Johnson 's Glass House in New Canaan, CT was also damaged by flood.
The emperor's new clothes is a cold box.
So Mies liked the glass shoebox, and Bucky Fuller preferred domes and circular houses. The true genius of a good architect shows when they can orchestrate elements such that there is a marriage of form and functionality. That's design - the rest is fashion. There was a UC Berkeley architectural professor who once presented a house design to a design review board. I'll be the first to say that most such boards have unqualified people; but his particular design was composed of a series of obtuse angled planes with a couple of square windows; and it was obvious to the board members that it was a bad design. The house was completely brown (CorTen) and ignored the natural aspects of the site. The members of the board looked at his drawings and his creation as he proclaimed his originally and puffed out his chest. The thing looked like the droid recycling tank from Star Wars. You could just imagine those little guys in the cloaks going in and out. The design was completely laughable. Another so-called architect in the audience stood up to support him, saying that this was a masterpiece and exactly what they're taught to do in architecture school. (Wonder what school that is.) ***** So some architects are great, some not so much. The Farnsworth house is stunning, but in reality unlivable for a number of reasons. The form might get an "A", but the functionality gets an "F" - unless you're a mouse that likes to run around in right angles inside a shoebox.
Mies Van Der Rohe for 2023 needs to be curved, ergonomic and based in motion trajectories.
Angles are a manufacturing convenience not based in human motion.
Thank you for covering something that’s non-Victorian
I love it.
Beautiful house.
His masterpiece was the Barcelona Pavilion
I would have guessed this house was built in the 1960s!
Odd that Edith approved of plans only to turn round and hate it?
Yes , Wondering more about the backstory on this . Anyone know ? Please share !
It had no ventilation.
@@sharksport01 Seriously ? ! All windows & beautiful location w/ fresh country air ... Kinda like " water , water everywhere & not a drop to drink ... " only air , air everywhere & not a molecule to breath ! 😂
@@sharksport01 it is essentially a glass house so it would become a hot house. Did have curtains? Maybe at night when it was all closed it might become stuffy. She did look at the plans. 🤷
The house proved impossible to live in: freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer.
Let us not be quick to judge. Everybody is different and have different needs and wants. It is what I love best about design, interpreting those needs and wants for each client and getting close or nailing it. We don't know all the parameters. Bottom line is you either like it or don't or appreciate what the designer was trying to do. Issue here I think is - are we bringing the outdoors in too literally here? Or uncomfortable without a feeling of solidness. I lean towards Arts & Crafts personally, but I absolutely love Mies and Bauhaus design, and mid-century, and North West Japanese and absolutely Prairie style FLW
Was this the house they used in the 2006 movie The Lake House?
No, the lake house is actually on water.
...and yet there are some who still hate Mieses' to pieces.
I rather like the look of it, but I would feel uncomfortably exposed living in a house designed with so much glass. Unless I had huge and impenetrable walls around the garden. In the 1950s post WWII Melbourne, modernism really did take off and flt roof houses gained quite a vogue but my understanding is that there were often issues with the flat roof. Probably more easily constructed now? Thank you for the video! Much appreciated!
It's interesting but not a cozy place to live in.
How many “once a century” floods has the house sustained since then?
So far so Good ...though eves and a flat roof " veranda " are obviously a good idea for livability ( too bad about the budget ) .
Someday when Singularity Intelligence has sorted out a global / non toxic / fusion based / energy unit / underwriting of global income per capita Commonwealth it would good to see this systems architecture put into generative design options .
Hey Edith what'cha doing today? Oh I just have to mow under my house.
For to much glass, the they put curtains. I like this house with smaller windows.
Unique for its time? Certainly. Cozy to live in? Absolutely not.
I would like to know about the people who kept all that glass clean ALL the time......
Wow
The centrall core concept has inspired me .
Timeless. An absolute classic.
This house would be awesome with newer modern furniture .
What?
@@RAREFORMDESIGNS A chair and a half, a big sectional sofa and an ottoman.
I wonder if anyone else has duplicated the house of is it considered a landmark and cannot be copied. Maybe we can get the Chinese to work on that.
It is a good start, but needs to have modern sustainability incorporated, like solar panels, water and heat, how can these all be addressed in an economical and practical way?
It doesn't need any of those failing technologies.
@RAREFORMDESIGNS Yeah, right, failing technologies like electricity, water and heat 🤣
It is a beautiful and stunning house, but I can’t ignore the fact it was built on a floodplain.
The beauty of this house makes me cry. It is utterly sublime.
So it was designed and located to remain dry during a once in 500-year flood, yet it was submerged in water during a once in 100-year flood? Makes perfect sense.
4:00 "The outright rejection of tradition undermined American values." This is nonsense. It sounds like something that would be said today.
She sounds like Wanda Sykes.
What a beautiful house….truly a slap in the face by calling it the EF house.
Look great & fun, but livable comfortably ?
Love this house, though it flooded 3 times (placement was dramatic, but perhaps didn't work out so well). At one point it was attacked as 'communist' (whatever that means) by some benighted critics. That said, Mies, is a complicated study for me. I love some of his stuff but hate more. One Charles Center in my hometown of Baltimore isn't good, and a lot of the Lakeshore Drive stuff would be anodyne except that they inspired countelss imitations and thus uniformity, and ultimately urban monotony. His low slung designs however are knockouts, see Crown Hall, Carr Memorial Chapel, etc.
Its beautiful, but not really a live in house - soulless possibly is the word. I like the Miller residence better in that it is a working family home.
❗️
You mean adopter, not “adapter”.
👍🏆👍
Not enuff privacy and I wouldn’t feel safe in it……..
1954!
Zack Snyder copied this house in Batman VS Superman as Bruce Wayne's lake house. It's also in his cut of Justice League.
I get FLW’s houses; for me Mies is a miss.
I'd raise it another 6 feet.
I have always considered that as the perfect house.
A house for the masses, a house for mieses 😂
sometimes architecture slips into the emperor has no clothes zone.
a plain glass box wouldn't sell at Tiffany, let alone make people call it a home.
this architecture has no clothes.
The Dr. DID pay for the house. However, there was an additional charge and she didn't want to pay for that charge. It was a small amount compared to what she had already paid him. VDR put her house in a flood plane and just hoped for the best. Sloppy and egotistical on his part. She did not deserve that flood.
Ironically the style of Van der Rohe, and other "modernists" is the primary CAUSE of cities losing individuality. An assemblage of glass boxes EVERYWHERE. I don't hate on all modern (Post WW 2) style, "Googie" is a fun style that needs a revival! But "brutalism" and glass boxes (to me) is soulless and depressing. But that may be just me. YMMV.
When one refers to themselves as one, one can't help, but think that one must be an insufferable p@#k
Video gets a Thumbs UP, but the design of the house, gets a Thumbs DOWN!!
So many of these "master" architects think in totally abstract terms, and have great difficulty humanizing their designs, visualizing how people will actually LIVE in them. And their designs are a great failure from a pleasurable living standpoint. I'm not surprised she moved to her Italian villa, where they design for beauty and livability, and do a smashing job on both.
I've visited Fallingwater 8 times, and the first 4-5 times I was smitten with it. However, now I see the flaws, and I often wonder, "What the HELL was Wright thinking"? For example, the fireplace in the living room. There is no way to sit around it and enjoy it. You can't visually SEE the fireplace from any of the built-in bench seating that Wright designed around the perimeter of the room. And if you try to put chairs in front of it, because of the intruding bedrock Wright left in front of it, you are going to be a great distance from the fire. AND, your seating is going to feel and look very awkward because it's going to be in a through space. So the only way to really enjoy the fire is to stand in front of it as you would at a fraternity keg party that has a fire going.
“Modernist Masterpiece”, you must be talking about Fallingwater.....not any of the Crap of Mees.
Shallow narrative, very shallow
A glass box up on stilts.....I'm not feeling it.
Great architecture. But not livable.
It looks like a gas station.
They should take her name off since she was so nasty about it
So its a glass box with a wood box inside, with furniture placed around the wood box and situated in a floor plain so it's been flooded multiple times. Sounds like a filed designer to me.
Ahh what scandal, To be the rockstar of your day and have Rich Women throw themselves at your feet. And now its constant flooding puts it a risk forever.
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