• Philip Johnson其人及Glass House

Philip Johnson原本是评论家。２０年代他首先发掘了发源于欧洲的现代主义。他和建筑里史学家Henry Hitchcock以及MOMA（现代艺术博物馆）的负责人在１９２３年于MOMA组织了大规模的现代建筑展，包括来自欧洲的密斯(Mies van der Rohe)、柯布西艾(Le Corbusier)与华特.格罗佩斯（Walter Gropius)以及其他建筑师的作品 - 尽管Philip Johnson并不是很情愿，但还是包括了美国的赖特（Frank Lloyd Wright）。 此展览成为欧洲现代主义者在美国扬名立万的里程碑。

之后在３０年代，包豪斯创始人之一Gropius离开德国来到美国成为哈佛大学的建筑学教 授，Johnson拜其为师，修学建筑学硕士学位。Johnson非常富有，上学期间，他在马萨诸塞州的剑桥为自己设计并修建了一栋现代主义庭院式别墅， 相当成功。

之后Johnson与现代主义大师密斯交往甚密，二战后，几乎是同时，Johnson在 Connecticut州的New Canaan（就是xx的Glass House)，密斯在芝加哥郊外各自设计修建了一座独立的全玻璃公寓。

Johnson参与了密斯的经典现代主义之作西格拉姆建筑(Seagram Building），到７０年代为止两人共同推动发扬现代建筑，影响深远，不可磨灭。

这其实也是为什么Philip Johnson在建筑史上位置举足轻重的很大一个原因，可以说，没有Johnson的大力推动，现代主义可能无法在美国生根。

到今天为止，Glass House仍然被公认为是Johnson{zh0}的作品，也有人认为可能用艺术作品描述Glass House比建筑作品更恰当。但无法否认的是Glass House是美国内现代主义起源的标志性作品。现代主义是建筑与艺术的一场伟大革命，Glass House被选为为数不多的２９个{gjj}历史遗迹之一也是因其在美国现代主义发展中的特殊位置。

但具有讽刺意味的是８０年代Johnson突然转向了后现代主义建筑，那几乎是一场灾难，是对现代主义的颠 覆。为建筑师们不齿的AT&T大楼就是那个时代的作品。

• David Whitney

提到Johnson，就必须要讲到David Whitney，他是Johnson{zh1}４５年的人生伴侣。David在当代艺术（Contemporary Art）的位置与Johnson在建筑界的位置相当，David是当代艺术收藏家，与包括Andy Warhol在内的当代艺术家关系密切。在Glass House周边，Johnson为David的收藏专门修建了两个小型博物馆，里面收藏的作品分量只论质量不谈数量可与世界任何一个当代艺术馆相提并论。

这两个小型博物馆亦是两人４５年爱情的见证，也使得Glass House之旅更加特别。

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Inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s , the Glass House by Philip Johnson, with its perfect proportions and its simplicity, is considered one of the first most brilliant works of modern architecture. Johnson built the 47-acre estate for himself in New Canaan, Connecticut. The house was the first of fourteen structures that the architect built on the property over a span of fifty years.

More on Johnson’s Glass House after the break.

Completed in 1949, the Glass House was the first design Johnson built on the property. The one-story house has a 32′x56′ open floor plan enclosed in 18-feet-wide floor-to-ceiling sheets of glass between black steel piers and stock H-beams that anchored the glass in place. The structure, however, did not impress Mies when he visited the house. It is said that the brilliant mentor to Philip Johnson stormed out in fury because of what he interpreted as a lack of thought in the details of the house.

Nonetheless there are still many features that contribute to the beauty of the house. The clear glass panels create a series of lively reflections, including those of the surrounding trees, and people walking inside or outside of the house, layering them on top of one another creating everchanging images with each step taken around it.

The interior of the Glass House is completely exposed to the outdoors except for the a cylinder brick structure with the entrance to the bathroom on one side and a fireplace on the other side. The floor-to-ceiling height is ten and a half feet and the brick cylinder structure protrudes from the top. The floor is also made of red brick laid out in a herringbone pattern and is raised ten inches off of ground level. The only other divisions in the house besides the bathroom are discreetly done with low cabinets and bookshelves, making the house a single open room. This provides ventilation from all four sides flowing through the house as well as ample lighting.

Although the house is the primary attraction on the site, Johnson used the expansive land around it to allow his imagination to run and build thirteen more structures that include a guest house, an art gallery, and a sculpture pavilion. The guest house, connected to the Glass House with a stone path that lays over the expansive lawn immediately surrounding it, is a heavy brick structure, contrasting the extreme lightness and transparency expressed in the Glass House. The art gallery is buried underground in order to not take away attention from the house, making it windowless which is uncommon for a gallery. Wright’s other notable experiment on the site included a sculpture gallery which is “an assymmetrical white-brick shed with a glass roof…conceived as a series of interlocking rooms that step down around an open, central space.”

Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997, the Glass House is still considered a modern marvel. The beauty in its composition along with the rolling landscape have people travelling to visit and experience it firsthand everyday, and with the lines of the Glass House and the other buildings smoothly blending in with the lines of the horizon and the surrounding landscape, one can feel a breathtaking sensation of endlessness.