MY Architecture

The early modern architect Adolf Loos, who famously wrote “Ornament is a Crime,” also had a romantic streak, not unlike Carlo Mollino (see last week). In 1930 Adolf Loos completed two buildings: the (famous, urban) Müller House in Prague and the (not famous, rural) Landhaus Khuner (Khuner Villa) in Payerbach, Austria – two designs that could not be more different in appearance. While the Müller House is defined by an austere white cubic aesthetic, the Landhaus Khuner, is rustic, with log-and-stone construction sheltered under a pitched roof. The Müller House is hailed as a masterpiece of early modern architecture, while concerning the Landhaus Khuner, in contrast, there has developed only a sort of hush. We need to re-examine the Landhaus Khuner in order to embrace a broader understanding of what really constitutes architecture for today. You can visit, because today the house is a restaurant (and the colors are original).

The floating 1950s retreat retains many of the legendary Italian designer’s original interiors and custom furnishings (like the coat hooks in the last photo). Mollino, who became famous for blending surrealism, engineering, and sensual Italian modernism into his work, designed the property to feel almost suspended in nature. Built in 1953 in the village of Agra in Lombardy, the current owner’s great-grandfather, Luigi Cattaneo, commissioned midcentury Italian architect Carlo Mollino to design the stone-and-timber home as a holiday retreat. In addition to being an architect, Mollino was also a bon vivant, playboy, skier, interior designer, furniture designer and photographer of risqué Polaroids. (Not too risqué example at the end.) One of his best-known buildings is Turin’s Teatro Regio, with voluptuous red interiors, of which he oversaw the rebuilding in the late 1960s and early ’70s, decades after a fire destroyed the original theater.

Nature, light and architecture. More of our pool pavilion for a suburban Philadelphia location.

Filtered light is the best! Our pool pavilion in suburban Philadelphia compared to the apartment complex clubhouse we shared two weeks ago: both at home in their natural setting, the filtering of light reminding one of the dappled light that reaches the ground under the tree canopy. Soothing and life affirming.

Home Sweet Home - Spring has sprung!

Skylights, yes! A conservatory is a tremendous addtion to a home at any scale, from a grouping of potted plants on a large window sill to a traditional skylit sunroom. Here is a current MY Architecture project for a conservatory addition that is a contempory interpretation of two sources of inspiration (the last two photos): a Victorian green house, in this case the Fernery at Morris Arboretum outside Philadelphia, and a traditional Japanese wooden bath.

What is the connection between daylight and shopping? That, too, has ancient origins. Trajan's Markets in Rome of approximately 110 CE are considered to be the first multi-level shopping mall, though the upper levels could also have been offices (not unlike a contemporary indoor mall). The maze of a an Islamic Bazaar can only be lit from above. Jumping forward to the 19th century, the invention of the department store required new buildings with appropriate grandeur, to celebrate the glories of shopping. So immediately skylit central courts were created, starting in Paris, as shown here in a contemporary photo of the court at Printemps. Of course, here in Philadelphia we have Wannamakers, now unfortunately devoid of shoppers. The Fremont Street experience in Las Vegas, brings the street literally inside a suitably spectacular enclosure with a suitably Vegas light show. And now in Chengdu, PRC, the tradition of the enclosed shopping paradise continues in what is currently the world's largest building!

1. The House of Menander, Pompeii, 2. The Pantheon in an 18th C. painting, 3. The Guggenheim, FLlW, 4.The Ford Foundation, Roche and Dinkeloo, 5. Exeter library, Kahn, 6. The Thompson Center, Murphy Jahn, before its current evisceration by Google

Skylights again... In our own work we jump at the chance to accept the sun into a building to support the goals of the owner. At 3737 Chestnut, a 25 story apartment building on land owned by the Epsicopal Cathedral of Philadelphia supported renovations to the historic building, added up-to-date support facililites, and will continue to support the mission of the church far into the future. A linear atrium creates a light filled zone that keeps the apartment building from touching the historic building, lets light into the stained glass windows on the south side of the church, provides needed handicapped access and links all of the disparate parts of church functions into one luminous, spiritually uplifting zone.

Skylights and clerestories have been as important in modern architecture as that of the past of course, and not just in religious buildings. Every one of Frank Loyd Wright's buildings utilized light as a powerful aesthetic and emotive factor. Yet another of my favorite architecture pairs are the buildings Wright designed for Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr., the president of Johnson Wax, in Racine, Wisconson, not far north of Chicago. The Johnson Wax offices and research tower utilized miles of glass tubing to create a glowing translucent enclosure that peaks out through the lilypad concrete columns and curving brick forms. (Wright designed the offoice furniture, too.) Then Mr Johnson's home, Wingspread, spirals out from the spectacular domed living room, ringed by clerestories, which Wright called a "wigwam." A marvelous pair of buildings that seem almost to be in perpetual motion, bathed in light.

1. Holy Shroud 2. Valinotto 3. Holy Shroud 4. Valinotto 5. Holy Shroud 6. Valinotto 7. Holy Shroud 8. Valinotto 9. Holy Shroud

1. Ste. Chapelle 2. King's College Chapel 3. Ste. Chapelle 4. King's College Chapel 5. Ste. Chapelle 6. King's College Chapel.

Pictures: 1. Mercer main hall 2. Soane gallery 3. Mercer roofscape 4. Mercer attic 5. Mercer walkway 6. Soane breakfast room 7. Soane roof scape 8. Mrs. Soane's sofa.

IDEAL CITIES - yes! - Here is a link to a comprehensive article on the "Fuggerei", the world's oldest social housing project, where rent is still $1.00 a year. Founded 500 years ago in Augsburg, Germany, by Jakob Fugger, one of the wealthiest men to have ever lived. Let's do this again! https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/02/23/rent-is-still-1-a-year-at-the-worlds-oldest-and-most-beautiful-social-housing-project/?utm_source=news.messynessy.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=unsung-heroes&_bhlid=f8a158b19fef8504a9981f14b02813080ec04a23

Illustrations: 1. Leonardo's Vitruvian man with my overlay, emphasizing the modularity of traditional construction, 2. overview of the excavations, 3. the telltale corner column, 4. Morgan's reconstruction from Vitruvius's decription, 5. aerial view of Fano, 6. map showing the basilica in the lower right corner, 7. an imaginary 19th century bust of Vitruvius.

We lost a number of high profile architects in 2025, Frank Gehry and Robert A.M. Stern at the head of the class. But earlier in the year we lost Graham Gund of the Gund Partnership in Boston. From a wealthy family (benefactors of Gund Hall at Harvard), he had a leg up. And the recent work of the firm is competent, if uninspring. But as an unrepentent Post Modernist, I have always admired his work of the 1980's, which was exuberant and playful, yet never over the top. These were buildings that marked the era in Boston, and IMHO are exactly the kind of buildings we should still be building today. 1. One Faneuil Square, 2. 75 State Street, 3. Boston Ballet, 4. Church Court Condos, 5. One Bowdoin Square, all in Boston, and 6. the Patterson house on Fishers Island.