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Luscombe Castle       Luscombe Castle is a home located in Dawlish, England. The land for the house was purchased in 1797 by Charles Hoare whom demolished the original home, and immediately began the planning of his new home. The architects for the building were John Nash and Humphrey Repton. The design for the home was based on Downtown Castle and Gothic Revival. It included Tudor-Gothic style windows, castellated parapets, turrets, pinnacles, and chimney stacks. What made the design different from standard Gothic Revival was the irregularities, such as the varying roof elevations, and the roofs not being flat, as well as the strategic view points that focused on the surrounding landscape, all of which was in the picturesque ideal. Nash had the intention of showing that classicism did not have to mean flat roofs and a symmetrical design.   The layout was comprised of an asymmetrical...

   Bass Residence       The Bass Residence was located in Fort Worth Texas, and commissioned to be designed by Paul Rudolph in 1970. Construction was completed in 1976, and this structure was said to be one of Rudolph’s most ambitious residential projects based on size and scope. The Bass Residence is an example of his experimental ideas, attempting to bridge the styles of new and old architectural styles “whose richness came not from applied ornament but from spatial complexities developed from structure and the three dimensional elaboration of the program”. This is similar to the manifesto of Adolf Loos, “Ornament and Crime”, although this particular project was said to be heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Waters, as well as Mies van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. The spatial diversity and complexity of the Bass Residence surpasses that of the aforementioned projects, however. The layout of t...

Rear Façade Front Façade Villa Tugendhat The Villa Tugendhat was built in 1930, and designed by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. It is a three floor Villa situated on a slope, with a concrete wall supporting the street side.   It is made of  steel frame construction, a concrete foundation, reinforced concrete ceilings and floors, and a stucco façade and brick masonry. Steel frame construction was not common for homes at the time, but it allowed for the development of a free plan layout, and varying floor plans for each individual level. The cross-shape profile of the columns were subtle in appearance, placed five meters apart, but held up all the upper levels, by being anchored into the concrete floor and ceiling slabs. Meis’ functionalist concept of iron framework enabled the structure  to be built without load bearing walls,  creating more open and light spaces. Grete & Fritz Tugenhat met Mies in Berlin in 1927, and were a...

Eastern façade Le Petit Trianon Western Façade In 1768 the building of Le Petit Trianon was completed on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. Designed by architect Agne-Jaques Gabriel, it has been referred to as “the perfect home”.   Originally meant to be an escape for the King and his mistress Madame de Pompador, she passed away four years before it’s completion. The layout was exactly as described, a “petit” or miniature version of a palace. With a richly decorated interior thanks to Robert Couturier, perhaps the most notable inhabitant was Marie-Antionette, wife of Louis XVI. The location is set near the edge of the woods, where it was meant to feel like a true escape, even if only yards away from the Palace.         The structure is said to be a perfect balance of Baroque and Rococo styles, in Neoclassical fashion. The entrance is at the eastern façade. The western façade features rounded c...

VILLA SAVOYE       Designed by Le Corbusier and constructed in 1931, Villa Savoye combined all of his “5 points”. The house has a structural system based on pilotis,   free façade, ribbon windows, a flat roof terrace, and open plan. The opportunity for him to materialize his manifesto in this building transformed Corbusier’s career, and the principles of international style. He describes his view on the function of the home with the phrase “The house is a Machine for Living”. The inspiration for the home was based on the motor car, which he deemed to be technological magic. The movement of the car is interpreted radically for the time, where it arrives under the house, as oppose to an outdoor space. The façade of Villa Savoye is comprised of reinforced concrete and exposed structural supporting pilotis. This combination of materials enabled Corbusier to design the home with a sense of freedom of form, additionally allowing him ...

Vienna Secession Building       The Secession building was constructed by Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffman under the direction Gustav Klimt, 1898. At the time, Austria was resistant to the new waves of art spreading through Europe, and their repressive sentiments led to the outbreak of artists taking a stand for artistic freedom. The artists banded together to form the Vienna Secession. This building was their new exhibition center, and it was intended to be an architectural manifesto of their revolt against the art institutions of Vienna, in the name of artistic freedom. Although the building came under great scrutiny, many saw it as a temple-like structure and a sacred space where art can be free. Front Entrance Left side view       Olbrich was a student of Otto Wagner, a well known professor at the school of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was a well versed in the design of Art-Nuevo, and com...

Villa Müller       Villa Müller is a home built in Prauge for a doctor a his family. It was designed by Architect Adolf Loos based on his concept of “Raumplan”, and is known to be his best example of this design tactic. The Raumplan design was based on the idea that spaces do not need to be defined solely by walls, and that both ceiling height and floor level can be strategically manipulated to create interesting and connected spaces that maintain distinct boundaries. The variation in height was based on the idea that the level of privacy a room needs, should be directly related to height of the ceiling; meaning, a more private space would have a lower ceiling, and a more public space would have a higher ceiling. Special considerations were also taken when designing the program. Rooms that were related were not only easily accessible to each other, but also shared strategic sight lines. With the use of columns and knee walls, the rooms were laid out so...