FARNSWORTH HOUSE

• Introduction• Architect• Site Plan• Structure• Plan• Section• Elevation• Spaces• Interior• Materials• Drawbacks• Conclusion

• Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

• Year(s) of design: 1945-1950

• Year(s) of Contruction:1950-1951

• Land Area: 240,000 sq.m

• Floor Area:206 sq.m

• Location: Springfield, Illinois, United States

• Widely recognized as an iconic masterpiece of International Style of Architecture.

Architect

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe• German- American architect.• created an influential 20th

century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity.

• He called his buildings “skin and bones” architecture.

• He sought a rational approach that would guide the creative process of architectural design.

• “less is more” and “God is in the details”.

• Extensive use of clear floor-to-ceiling glass opens the interior to its natural surroundings to an extreme degree.

• Two distinctly expressed horizontal slabs, which form the roof and the floor, sandwich an open space for living.

• The slab edges are defined by exposed steel structural members painted pure white.

• The elongated rectangle of the house lies parallel to the course of fox river.

• Entrance on the sunny side facing the river instead of street.

• Suspended stairways represented by the perpendicular axis faces the river directly.

• Simple elongated cubic form of the house parallel to the flow of the river

• Terrace platform is slipped downstream in relation to the elevated porch and living platform.

• Outdoor spaces are extensions of indoor space with a screened porch and open terrace.

ROOF PLAN

• Mies applied the concept of an unobstructed space that is flexible for use by people.

• The interior appears to be a single open room, its space ebbing and flowing around two wood blocks

• The building is essentially one large room filled with freestanding elements that provide subtle differentiations within an open space, zones for sleeping, cooking, dressing, eating and sitting.

• Very private areas such as toilets and mechanical rooms are enclosed within the core.

SECTION• The house is elevated 1.60 m above a flood plain by 8 wide flange

steel columns which are attached to the sides of the floor and ceiling slabs.

• Farnsworth House is the ultimate expression of minimalism- using only the minimum necessary to ensure the stability of the house.

• Minimum elements include 8 columns, separated by a distance of 6.60m, supporting the two slabs that forms the floor and the ceiling.

• The 2.75m terrace slab, supported by only 4 columns and leading to the entrance helps to emphasize the immateriality of the house

ELEVATIONS

• The floor is set in two layers, between which is the plumbing & drainage system.

• The domestic plumbing elements and also the rainwater run-off spill into a central circular chest.

• The roof, while mostly flat, is slightly inclined towards the center to force water to run toward the edges.

• A third floating slab, an attached terrace, acts as a transition between the living area and the ground.

• The house is accessed by two sets of wide steps connecting ground to terrace and then to porch

• Building with free and open space within a minimal framework

SPACES

•A central wooden core contains sanitary facilities and creates a separation between the kitchen, two bedrooms and the living room.• The 111 sq.m terrace is extended towards a meadow an the levels are communicated by means of stairs.

Materials

• The architectural work is done in steel, laminated glass plates & Roman travertine on the floor and deck.

• Mill-formed steel and plate glass –represent modern era.

• Roman travertine and exotic wood veneers-traditionalism.

• All the steel pillars that hold both the platforms are of square section and have been blasted and polished.

They are painted white, making their welds virtually invisible.

Drawbacks

• Lack of traditional warmth and coziness.

• Poor energy efficiency.

• Proved difficult to live in.

• It lacks air conditioning & therefore, in the warm seasons, produces an effect similar to that of a greenhouse.

• Mies talks about free space, but his space is very fixed.

INDOOR TO OUTDOOR VIEWS

OUTDOOR TO INDOOR VIEWS

Service care becomes the diagram of the house as a machine, the kitchens and back to back bathrooms stand in a logical, utilitarian relationship to one another.