14 Lessons in Minimalism from the Glass House - Remodelista
Photography by Matthew Williams for Remodelista. Minimalists need medicine cabinets, too. Granted permission to photograph the house at dawn, we snooped in cupboards and opened closed doors (with the help of a curator), and came away with a list of ideas worth applying to our own far less daring houses. Set on 49 secluded acres, the Glass House was the first of an eventual 14 structures that Johnson added to the compound... ...including an underground art gallery; a compact (and much more private) one-bedroom brick house for himself and longtime partner, curator David Whitney; and a red and black asymmetrical gate house he dubbed Da Monsta. To prepare the place for guests, Crista Bazoian, manager of the shop, went looking for new bedding and found it right here on Remodelista: She ordered an ensemble from one of our favorite sources, Rough Linen. Johnson’s living room furniture is by his friend Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. After seeing Mies’s German Pavilion at the International Exposition in Barcelona of 1929, Johnson ordered the furniture for his own New York living room and then used it in the Glass House. 1. Timeless design really can last a lifetime. How to divide a glass cube into living, sleep, and eating quarters? 2. There are all kinds of ways to build a wall. 3. Display art at a human level. Johnson purchased Nicolas Poussin’s 17th-century painting, The Burial of Phocion, at the recommendation of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the Museum of Modern Art’s first director (Johnson himself served as MoMA’s first curator of architecture). The painting shows a landscape that uncannily evokes the pastoral scene on view from the windows. Johnson mounted the painting on a board and elevated it on a metal framework, an ideal solution for a house with no walls to hang things on (but, given the painting’s sun exposure, not exactly an archival approach). 4. Incorporate air space into your room design. The interior is just over 1,700 square feet (with 10 foot, 4 1/2 inch tall ceilings), and each part has plenty of breathing room. The seating area overlooks a dining table designed by Johnson and a papier-mí¢ché maquette of Two Circus Women, a sculpture by Elie Nadelman. Though the Glass House isn’t visible from the road, Johnson eventually succumbed to sliding panels to block the sun and prevent interlopers from seeing inside–Yale architecture students were among the many known to appear uninvited for a look around. 5. Give in to window covers. How to plunk a working kitchen into an eyesore-free, open-plan room? 6. Cover up what you don’t want to display. Presto chango: A hinged walnut top (with rubber-footed legs) folds down over the sink and stove, turning the space into a martini bar and buffet. As for the appliances, Johnson turned to Kitchens by Dean, in New Canaan, for his stainless steel sink, GE fridge, freezer, 24-inch stove, and wooden cabinets–all tidily tucked under the counter. For coffee and tea, the kitchen is stocked with a Chemex coffee maker and the Teema collection of pared-down tableware by Finnish designer Kaj Franck–like the Glass House, Franck’s ceramics are based on square, circular, and rectangular shapes. (Read about Teema in Object Lessons; the pieces shown here are available at the Glass House Store.) Is it time to rediscover herringbone brick? And see Brick Makes a Comeback for an interesting use of brick in a contemporary remodel, herringbone floors included. 7. Brick makes interesting, durable flooring. (And it works well with radiant heat.) 8. A curve or two is pleasing to the eye. The house’s only fully enclosed room is a brick cylinder that serves on one side as a fireplace. On the other side, the cylinder contains a bathroom conveniently right off the bedroom. The bathroom has a curved wood door and frame (with faint marks on it from Johnson’s wheelchair during his last stays in the house). Sheathed in pale green Italian glass tiles, the bathroom’s storage is cleverly tucked into its outsize medicine cabinet. 9. Consider a full-length medicine cabinet. Johnson loved to experiment with materials: He built an open-air Ghost House on the property from chain link fencing; constructed Da Monsta from gunite, a plasterlike swimming pool composite; and applied leather tiles on the bathroom ceiling. 10. Apply texture in unexpected places. The shower has a shades-of-Pompeii circular tiled frame and a curtain on a metal ceiling track. 11. A bedroom doesn’t need much more than a bed. A 1927 Mies van der Rohe glass-and-tubular-steel table stands next to a ghost of a bed cloaked in a woven cotton spread that Johnson brought back from a trip to Greece. The windows were sized according to the largest panels of glass available at the time and the lower panels are chair-rail height. The cupboards have simple patinated brass knobs. The windows are steel-framed and secured with brass hardware. When there are overnight guests, the bed is dressed in its new Rough Linen bedding. The duvet cover is Rough Linen’s Orkney design, paired with the company’s Simple Pillow Slips and St. Barts Blue Shams and a white linen Sheet. Alongside exposed steel I-beams, each corner of the house is lit by canister lights. After moving in, Johnson hired lighting designer Richard Kelly to minimize glare and save him from having to stare at his own reflection after dark. 13. Plants make good roommates. A spindly pencil cactus brings the outdoors in and keeps the room from feeling chilly. It stands next to a Mies van der Rohe tubular steel and leather desk and Brno Chair. 14. Borrow freely from others. Johnson openly grabbed the idea for an all-glass house from Mies van der Rohe–he even managed to get his built first–and found inspiration all over, from antiquity to the Bauhaus to Frank Gehry’s aversion to right angles.