Ordinary Exhibition | Glass House 2.0

Glass House 2.0

Built in 1949 in New Canaan, Connecticut, Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House is an early example of industrial materials being used in a domestic setting. What it is not, however, is a house made from glass. It’s a house made from glass, brick, steel, walnut and, arguably, tastefully selected and presented items from the art collection its architect shared with his life companion, David Whitney.

     Glass House 2.0 begins where the concept for its precedent must have started: with the idea of a transparent house, as much a celebration of the building’s context as the architectural frame that  composes and curates the nature it demarcates. This was what Mies van der Rohe tried to achieve with the Farnsworth House, that other essay in transparency and translucency, which served as Johnson’s inspiration.

     Milano-based architect Carlo Santambrogio came close to what we have in mind for our Glass House 2.0 with his concept for a housing series made almost entirely of glass. Throughout the Ordinary Takeover exhibition, we will work towards a completely monomateiral building made of this non-crystalline amorphous solid.