“Mental Coordinate System”
Peter Eisenman’s House VI and Steven Holl’s Stretto House
2/3/2004 by Richard Hamming
“Post-Modern space is more an elaboration of the Cartesian grid than an organic ordering…houses always keep a mental coordinate system no matter how free-form and baroque they become” (Jencks, p. 96).
Kicking off the simplistic straight lines and box houses of the “Late Modern” period in the late 1960’s was the New York Five: Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk and Richard Meier (Whiffen, p. 287). They initiated a revival of Le Corbusier’s style from the 1920’s, but “the houses they designed were not so much imitations as complications of the prototypes, which had an essential simplicity (Whiffen, p. 287). These Post-Modern architects evolved qualities from Modernism, mainly developed by Le Corbusier, such as layering and compaction composition” (Jencks, p. 96). Eisenman took these ideas and concepts and multiplied them seemingly indefinitely; Charles Jencks (p. 96) continued to state strong descriptive terms and phrases such as “a major traffic accident of collisions” and “a patch-work quilt” to describe Eisenman’s houses.
Eisenman’s House VI, built in 1975 in West Cornwall, Connecticut, stands out from its wooded setting and holds to the Modernist position of portraying no indication of a regional style (Jencks, p. 96). It is interesting how Eisenman designed this house to be able to turned and viewed from any angle or perspective and still basically be perceived the same. This “complex three-dimensional game” still maintains the geometry and isometrics from the 1920s (Huxtable, p. 52). The house seems to “exploit and transform the formal qualities of regular solids…with all their linguistic, syntactic meta-references” (Rowe, p. 131).
The geometric and linear shapes of the house keep your eye continuously moving and create a surreal experience of “Escher-like tricks” (Jencks, p. 97). Kenneth Frampton (p. 312) criticizes Eisenman’s “arbitrary overlays of different grids…irrespective of whether these happen to have any connection with the real context.” Essentially, Eisenman’s Purist language is Modernist, but his “semantic use of this language is Post-Modern; while his exclusive concern for syntax and contempt for function are Modern, the ambiguity and sensuality of his spatial inventions are Post-Modern” (Jencks, p. 98).
Holl’s Stretto House, built in 1992 near Dallas, Texas, is very conscience of its site and also utilizes many planar and linear elements. The initial concept was developed from the musical term “stretto” which Holl related to the site’s existing three overlapping ponds (Holl, p. 7). He was inspired by one specific piece of music (Bela Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste), which contains four distinct movements; “where music has a materiality in instrumentation and sound this architecture attempts an analog in light and space” (Holl, p. 7).
This house has some similarities in appearance to Eisenman’s House VI, including the geometric elements and planar, cube shapes. Differences seem to be more prevalent, however. Holl’s Stretto House is very aware of its site, whereas Eisenman avoided this context. The “Texas Stretto House” also utilizes curved planar roof elements and covers a much larger, and longer, area of the site instead of a more cube-shape building. Various interior views of Holl’s house are reminiscent of Eisenman’s House VI: the geometric elements and clean lines can make one question which direction is up. “The plan is purely orthogonal, while the section is curvilinear. The guest house is an inversion” (Holl, p. 7).
Holl also based his design concept on idea and phenomena: an overall idea that creates causes and effects with the functional and physical elements, and “the concept transcends the abstract, organizing the experimental phenomena” (Holl, p. 9).
Although Peter Eisenman’s House VI and Steven Holl’s Stretto House were conceived, designed, and built in different decades, apparent similarities between the two can be perceived throughout their uses of geometric shapes. The differences may be due to the time gap and theoretical mindsets of architects who they use as inspiration from past design eras. But since both Eisenman and Holl are still practicing today, this “gap” may not really exist.
Works Cited
Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1996.
Holl, Steven. Stretto House: Steven Holl Architects. New York: The Monacelli Press, Inc., 1996.
Huxtable, Ada Louise. Kicked a Building Lately? Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
Jencks, Charles. The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1991.
Rowe, Peter G. Design Thinking. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994.
Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1993.
“Post-Modern space is more an elaboration of the Cartesian grid than an organic ordering…houses always keep a mental coordinate system no matter how free-form and baroque they become” (Jencks, p. 96).
Kicking off the simplistic straight lines and box houses of the “Late Modern” period in the late 1960’s was the New York Five: Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk and Richard Meier (Whiffen, p. 287). They initiated a revival of Le Corbusier’s style from the 1920’s, but “the houses they designed were not so much imitations as complications of the prototypes, which had an essential simplicity (Whiffen, p. 287). These Post-Modern architects evolved qualities from Modernism, mainly developed by Le Corbusier, such as layering and compaction composition” (Jencks, p. 96). Eisenman took these ideas and concepts and multiplied them seemingly indefinitely; Charles Jencks (p. 96) continued to state strong descriptive terms and phrases such as “a major traffic accident of collisions” and “a patch-work quilt” to describe Eisenman’s houses.
Eisenman’s House VI, built in 1975 in West Cornwall, Connecticut, stands out from its wooded setting and holds to the Modernist position of portraying no indication of a regional style (Jencks, p. 96). It is interesting how Eisenman designed this house to be able to turned and viewed from any angle or perspective and still basically be perceived the same. This “complex three-dimensional game” still maintains the geometry and isometrics from the 1920s (Huxtable, p. 52). The house seems to “exploit and transform the formal qualities of regular solids…with all their linguistic, syntactic meta-references” (Rowe, p. 131).
The geometric and linear shapes of the house keep your eye continuously moving and create a surreal experience of “Escher-like tricks” (Jencks, p. 97). Kenneth Frampton (p. 312) criticizes Eisenman’s “arbitrary overlays of different grids…irrespective of whether these happen to have any connection with the real context.” Essentially, Eisenman’s Purist language is Modernist, but his “semantic use of this language is Post-Modern; while his exclusive concern for syntax and contempt for function are Modern, the ambiguity and sensuality of his spatial inventions are Post-Modern” (Jencks, p. 98).
Holl’s Stretto House, built in 1992 near Dallas, Texas, is very conscience of its site and also utilizes many planar and linear elements. The initial concept was developed from the musical term “stretto” which Holl related to the site’s existing three overlapping ponds (Holl, p. 7). He was inspired by one specific piece of music (Bela Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste), which contains four distinct movements; “where music has a materiality in instrumentation and sound this architecture attempts an analog in light and space” (Holl, p. 7).
This house has some similarities in appearance to Eisenman’s House VI, including the geometric elements and planar, cube shapes. Differences seem to be more prevalent, however. Holl’s Stretto House is very aware of its site, whereas Eisenman avoided this context. The “Texas Stretto House” also utilizes curved planar roof elements and covers a much larger, and longer, area of the site instead of a more cube-shape building. Various interior views of Holl’s house are reminiscent of Eisenman’s House VI: the geometric elements and clean lines can make one question which direction is up. “The plan is purely orthogonal, while the section is curvilinear. The guest house is an inversion” (Holl, p. 7).
Holl also based his design concept on idea and phenomena: an overall idea that creates causes and effects with the functional and physical elements, and “the concept transcends the abstract, organizing the experimental phenomena” (Holl, p. 9).
Although Peter Eisenman’s House VI and Steven Holl’s Stretto House were conceived, designed, and built in different decades, apparent similarities between the two can be perceived throughout their uses of geometric shapes. The differences may be due to the time gap and theoretical mindsets of architects who they use as inspiration from past design eras. But since both Eisenman and Holl are still practicing today, this “gap” may not really exist.
Works Cited
Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1996.
Holl, Steven. Stretto House: Steven Holl Architects. New York: The Monacelli Press, Inc., 1996.
Huxtable, Ada Louise. Kicked a Building Lately? Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
Jencks, Charles. The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1991.
Rowe, Peter G. Design Thinking. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994.
Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1993.
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