MY Architecture

David Hockney is gone, one for the ages. Though delightfully and joyfully productive up to the end, his early works were mesmerizing. And he could draw like a god. His early career coincided with my years as an architecture/art student, and I have been enthralled ever since. Here are some drawings (and prints) from those years, along with one of the great paintings from those years. Good bye sir, and thank you!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck77rg88gd9o

While on the topic of Adolf Loos and his often unusual buildings, I am reminded of another untypical, early work of his, from 1904, a gut renovation of an 1820's villa in Montreux, Switzerland. It contains the ultimate bathroom to die for! If anyone one out there would like such a room in their own dwelling, we would be happy to oblige! On the other hand, the Villa Karma was recently for sale, for an undisclosed sum, for those for whom price is no object.

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).

Our poolhouse is not for sale, but you have a chance to buy Villa K2, Carlo Mollino’s modernist masterpiece on Italy’s Lake Maggiore for a mere $2.2 Million!

The floating 1950s retreat retains many of the legendary Italian designer’s original interiors and custom furnishings (like the coathooks 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, pl***oy, 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!

"RUSTIC AND LIVED-IN":
Check out the MY Architecture Spring Quarterly:

https://mailchi.mp/9aba8b45e126/holiday-greetings-17664617?e=90c29089f2

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!