Philip Johnson, New York, USA, 1950
OfHouses guest curated by Graham McKay ( Misfits’ Architecture ): “I
learned about the history of architecture and contemporary architecture from the
new local library near my high school. Adolescent me was intrigued by Bruce
Goff’s 1955 Bavinger House but it had already been chosen. Final
chapters in architecture books of that time usually ended with Philip
Johnson’s Glass House and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House side
by side. I always preferred Glass House despite not knowing it was more of a detached reception salon
than any serious proposition as a house. Glass House is hardly forgotten so my second
house is therefore Philip Johnson’s 1950 Rockefeller Guest House . As you
can imagine from its name, this house was never going to be housing as we understand
it. There’s no sign of a kitchen. There’s stairs, but we never find out to what.
It’s another Johnsonian salon for entertaining with an opulent minimalism only the very rich can wear. Even its
stories are from another world – such as the one about ballet legend
Rudolph Nureyev misjudging the stepping stones and falling into the pond. I
can’t look at Tadao Ando’s Sumiyoshi House/Azuma House without seeing Philip Johnson’s Rockefeller Guest House in a bottle.” (Photos: © Robert Damora, í r i s, Gottscho-Schleisner .)
