ARCH162

The Last house in the woods In the wilderness of Mill Run, Pennsylvania located in the Bear Run Nature Reserve sits a house camouflaged by nature. Design by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Falling Water house redefined the idea between man, architecture and Nature. Built as a weakened home for owners Mr. Edgar Kaufmann, his wife, and their son who worked under wright himself, the house in many ways was the product of, to simply put it, a last-minute scramble for ideas [3]. But, as it turned out this last-minute scramble turned to be one of the most architectural successful houses of the early 20th century. Inspired by Japanese architecture, Wright incorporated the house on to nature and vice versa. He wanted to create harmony between man and nature, and in doing so he integrated the house with the water fall (built on top of it) to do so [5].   Wright Revolved the house through two methods, on the outside and the inside. On the outside he used the presence of the falls, a...

A School Ahead of its Time Design by Walter Gropius the Bauhaus in Germany Dessau is an outstanding example of the modern movement. Been one of the first schools of design it brought together the most magnificent contemporary architects and artists and an innovative center for training. The name of the school translate to "Construction House" in German which couldn’t have been such a perfect choice. The Bauhaus in Dessau, been the most famous of all the three (others been in Weimar and Berlin) is the product of previous movements such as the arts and crafts movement, with much more emphasis on modern materials such as steel, concrete, and glass [2]. Its intent, according to Gropius was to integrate all of the arts, an integral part of the things of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society [7]. The Bauhaus is rectangular shaped with a flat-roof structure built on concrete . The exterior walls are mostly taken up by windows, giving the stru...

The House with Moving Walls Built in Utrecht, the Netherlands in 1925 The Schroder house stands as one of the first buildings constructed using the concepts of Neoplasticism. Design by Gerrit Rietveld on the commands of Mrs. Truus Schoder-Schrader and her three children the multifunctional home follows De Stijl's principles of harmonious order and also incorporates bold primary colors and geometric shapes [2]. The house is a representation of Piet Mondrian's style of De Stijl,   where he was known for his simply composed work of straight lines and three basic colors. The house mirrors his work in that it takes from his paintings such as " Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Grey and Blue " and creates a three dimensional rendition of it. The house stands at the end of a residential road completely on its own world compared to the buildings adjacent to it has two floors, a small garden, two terraces and a flat roof. Its striking appear...

The House by the Beach There is a tragedy that comes with E-1027, from the years that it took to built, to its slow deterioration from neglect and utter forgetness. House E-1027 was design, and constructed [with the help of a small local crew workers] by Eileen Gray in 1929, a time where been a women architect yet alone one untrained in the field of architecture was a pejorative term.  Yet again Gray in the process of building a summer getaway for her and her current lover (Jean Badovici) created one of the most important structures of architecture in the early 20th century. Locate in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin along the Côte d’Azur, Gray built an elegant minimalist villa on the shores of the Mediterranean. The only way to get to it been through lemon trees and banana palms, making it inaccessible by car. There on hillside you would see an all-white pastoral retreat "bathed in sunlight, freshened by breezes, and outfitted with sleek yet practical furnishings of leisur...

Brandenburg Gate History The Brandenburg gate was built between 1788 and 1791 by Prussian king Frederick William II as key entry to the city of Berlin. The gate topped of a statue which depicted the goddess of victory driving a chariot pulled by four horses, called the “Quadriga”. The statue stayed there until Napoleon Bonaparte and his grand army occupied berlin and decided to steal it, shipping it to Paris. Napoleon forgot about the statue, and it stayed in storage until the Prussian army took over Paris after his defeat. The statue was returned to the gate and became a symbol of the Prussian army’s victory over France. During world war II, the gate received heavy damages, and after the berlin wall was erected both east and west Germany worked together to restore the gate. After the restoration, the gate was completely shut off from west berlin. It wasn’t 1963 when John Kennedy said his “I am a jelly donut Speech” right near the gate that the wall was torn down.  ...

Schauspielhaus History The Schauspielhaus was part of a grandiose new scheme of town planning in Germany, Berlin in the year 1818. Design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a scene designer and romantic painter, the schauspielhaus was designed to be built as a theater. Although it was completed in 1821, the function of the building changed. During the French revolution it became the house of the Prussian national assembly for several years. After the first world war, its usage changed to a concert hall. During the second world war, the building was severely damaged by allied bombing to a point that it had to be rebuilt. It was in 1977 that is was finally reopened and in 1984 it reopened as a "Gala Concert Hall". [1] Architecture The building is design in a mix of Greek revival and Neoclassical architecture. You can tell its Neoclassical origins by its grandeur in scale, simplicity of forms, and use of the Greek order [4]. This are all evide...