Modern Dwellers Bring the Ouside In
He who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones is no longer a reliable axiom. It’s been out of date, in fact, since at least 1949 when Phillip Johnson designed and constructed what is now a National Trust Historic Site in New Canaan, Connecticut – The Glass House.
Johnson connected 18-foot-wide sheets of glass that stretched 10-and-a-half feet from floor to ceiling. Glass walls constituted all four sides of his 32-foot by 52-foot structure. Black steel piers and stock H-beams anchored the glass in place. A cylindrically shaped brick enclosure houses the private area of the home.
Johnson’s work and one similar of the same era, The Fransworth House located outside of Chicago and designed by Ludwig Miles van der Rohe, each predate float glass manufacturing so we’re not sure if the walls are tempered, lacquered, frosted, laminated, double paned, heat strengthened, low exclusivity, or precisely what mixture of silica sand, sodium carbonate, and calcium carbonate.
You’re probably not an architect trying to leave a legacy, but glass walls, windows, doors, louvers, railings, balustrades, guardrails, partitions, skylights, mirrors and more comprise a lot of different types of glass in the typical home.
The trend today is larger windows, glass doors and walls – even sliding, pocketing or folding glass walls or doors. You see such designs throughout ModernDwellings-dot-com.
Site Responsive
Glass isn’t the only ingredient necessary for a great modern design. Situating the home to the path of the sun, its topography, wind patterns, climate extremes, existing vegetation, zoning regulations, and a need for privacy is also factored in.
Glass walls and sliding glass doors help create a feeling of spaciousness, and streams of natural light is at least psychologically uplifting for many, if not a clear health benefit.
Transparency accommodates those desiring to be one with nature in a climate-controlled manner. Colossal openings to the outdoors is a hallmark of modern dwellings; a key element in today’s architecture.
Scroll through these three slides to see one example of what natural light can do for a house:
The home in the photo below, The Highland Park, inspired by Frank Llody Wright’s Usonian designs, is generous with windows even though it’s designed for an urban setting – meaning that your panoramic view might be of a neighbor’s home.
Notice the floor-to-celing walls on one side, with clerestory windows (small windows near the ceiling) on the other.
If there were neighbors on both sides, the windows on the left could start several feet above ground, still providing a view when standing and generous light throghout the day.
The window and glass wall placements on the house below not only provided great views, but they were also strategic. The house has no air conditioning; it relies on convection cooling.
Our home designs take into account the orientation of your site and how best to filter sunlight to create an interplay of light and shadow inside the home, along with the best view of the surrounding nature.
We’ll tell the rest of this story photographically.
Exterior Homes with Lots of Glass
Light Filled Interiors
We work both with both local architects and/or utilize the vast design resources of Lindal Cedar Homes to help you achieve as much glass house as you desire.
Maybe one day you too can make the registry of historic places!