Is Philip Johnson's Glass House The Most Beautifully Designed House In The World?

The architect Philip Johnson's Glass House is one of the most important icons of modern architecture. For nearly five decades, Johnson and the art collector David Whitney lived in the 47-acre grounds in New Canaan, CT, sculpting the landscape and adding new buildings.

In 2007, two years after both men had died, the site opened up to the public as a National Trust Historic Site.

Skira Rizzoli has just published a new edition of "The Glass House" ($25), the definitive book about the estate. See below for images and stories from its remarkable grounds.

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[Norge]

07:48 AM on 11/09/2011

No it is not one of the most beautiful houses in the world though perhaps one of the most naked and steril. So much of the ultra modern houses appear very much as the interior of institutions (hospitals) also appear. Nice places to visit though not a pace to live unless a person wants to live in a modern steril museum.
Eventually there will be the blending of the old and the new which will give the warmth which is now lacking in the ultra modern places.

[Valerie Kenny]

12:25 PM on 10/19/2011

I don't know anything about architecture, but like someone else said, it's nothing but a glass box. I don't think this is even close to the most beautifully designed house in the world...I've seen much prettier homes. Personally, I don't like a lot of modern American homes (I do like some modern Australian homes), they seem a little cold and unlivable...I guess that's the word I'm looking for...I think are the most beautiful homes are luxury ranch homes and huge, old Victorian homes.

[nicnic]

11:25 AM on 10/19/2011

... not even unemployed Architects on huffpo? mmmm pretty bad metric. I Guess that the AOL thing really spooked -everyone- out :D

[StrawHat]

05:24 PM on 10/15/2011

I think it's lovely -- but the idea of living in it gives me vertigo.

I'm more of a cave dweller, myself.

[Al Kero]

10:59 AM on 10/14/2011

Maybe he can re-design the Whit House

[Jack Davies]

01:22 AM on 10/14/2011

A glass box? Please....

[newplasticmachine]

10:43 PM on 10/13/2011

No.

[booshh]

09:22 PM on 10/13/2011

Looks nice, but not for me.

[nicnic]

08:10 PM on 10/13/2011

btw, I just googled "haptic stasis" as concept not as separate words... and it's not there... you heard it first here, at the huffington post ;)

[nicnic]

08:06 PM on 10/13/2011

on the other hand... behold a true original that really challenges and advances the concept of spacial beauty in Architecture as art, as the result a true ethics of construction, dimension, proportion and haptic stasis as an experience of the self:
http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/
:D

[nicnic]

07:56 PM on 10/13/2011

no no no no no no no no noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo it is not. As Mies said: "This house is to real modernism, what Internet explorer is to the internet: the pathetic perversion of the true ideals of informatics and the internet, all the way down to a pathetic and putrid garbage pail of gossip and virus".
ahhhh
there
My soul is in peace.
;)

[emilyKo]

11:53 AM on 10/10/2011

The Philip Johnson Glass House is hosting an online public debate, asking "Could you live in the Glass House?" -- Check it out, and put your two cents in at: http://glasshouseconversations.org/could-you-live-in-the-glass-house/

I'd of course live there, without a doubt! The house was designed as a place to experience nature - a luxury modernist camping trip of sorts - and with glass walls on all sides, and almost 50 acres of land surrounding the house, it's an ideal retreat.

[3fingerbrown]

10:33 AM on 10/10/2011

Don't know if it was intentional, but I love the visual joke of all those stones sitting in front of a glass house.

[Nelson Montana]

09:50 AM on 10/10/2011

Something's missing.

[studioh!]

07:15 PM on 10/09/2011

people who live in glass houses shouldn't