Alex Webber
ARCH 329
Prof. Middleton
4/1/13
Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, and the Open
Plan
Free Plan
Architecture
in our modern would have evolved into many different style and aesthetics. From
the organic forms of Zaha Hadid to the industrial style of Tom Kundig, all of
these style have generally one thing in common, the free plan. The idea of open
space and movable volumes has become the absolute norm in our society. If
you’re paying an architect to design a building, odds are you’re going to get a
free plan whether you like it or not. Its become automatic in our design
studios, and the seed was planted long before my generation was born. Le
Corbusier and MVDR were the primary fathers of this idea, they nurtured it in
very different ways but no matter, their work with the free plan allowed it to
explode into our everyday lives.
These
two men handled this idea differently, and having them both be pioneers of the
idea, they had the right to test it. The beauty in the free plan is that it is
never the same. Plans may look alike, but the way they formulate in the three
dimensional world can be very different. Looking into the manners in which MVDR
and Le Corbusier differentiated in their approach to the free plan can also
give you some insight to their character as architects.
Le Corbusier
“I will build you two houses and
they will have vaults.”
Le
Corbusier
Le
Corbusier was perhaps the first great master of the modern and international
style. He brought many new and radical ideas to architecture that would
resemble some of the Beaus d’Artes and some of Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus
movement. As you one might defer from the quote above, Le Corbusier was an
architect of conviction and certainty. He knew what his ideas were and he knew
how to use them. That mentality leads him to become one of the first real
global “starchitects.” The over-confidence and arrogance of Le Corbusier also
pushed many people away from him and his ideas. The double edge sword strikes
again, but for better or worse, Le Corbusier changed architecture forever and
for always.
 |
| Villa Savoye Plan |
The
most radical of the ideas that Le Corbusier carried was the Modular and how the
golden section of the Greeks could drive our design and proportions of space.
Le Corbusier spent many weeks learning from the Acropolis’s scales and
proportions and developed a theory of applying them to modern architecture. The
modular idea was based on having spaces be proportionate to each other while
creating a proportionate whole. All of the spaces were squeezed into a free
plan there for creating a truly complex space.
 |
| Domino Skeleton Structure |
Corbusier
also championed the domino skeleton system, and here is where he really left
his mark on architecture I believe. The domino theory frees the exterior walls
from carrying any of the structural loads above so that the facades may become
free for any design parameters Le Corbusier could think of. The idea of columns
or “pilotis” taking the structural load was ground breaking and opened the
interior and exterior simultaneously. The concrete structure came to the
forefront of architecture at this time because of the newfound possibilities it
allowed designers. The domino system also became the building block for Le
Corbusier’s 5 Points of Architecture.
1.Pilotis
2.Free
Plan
3.Free
Façade
4.Ribbon
Windows
5.Roof
Garden
Le
Corbusier studied long hours on the free plan and the domino skeletal system,
and that work had put him into the history books.
Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe
“…the principal ornament in all
architecture…”
Mies van der Rohe referring to the column
 |
| Mies van der Roh in front of Crown Hall Model, IIT |
Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe, or MVDR, was a similar character as Le Corbusier. An
architect with conviction and an intimidating confidence, just look at one
picture of the man and you’ll see. Coming from Germany in the late 1930’s, MVDR
had a different style of training from Le Corbusier’s more artistic and painter
background. As you may or may not know, he had a very distinct style to him and
his architecture was a reflection of the free plan and what modern technologies
afforded him. MVDR saw planes and lines with everything he designed, from the
Barcelona Pavilion to his high-rise towers in Chicago. Mies become a sort of
architecture Einstein from Germany in the eyes of many.
 |
| Barcelona Pavilion |
Modern
technology like steel and glass became critical parts of MVDR’s designs and
those materials really allowed him to push the boundaries of the free plan.
Rohe saw the advancements as an opportunity to strip away many of the
decorative styles we see in he past. MVDR may have picked up that idea from his
studies with Gropius at the Bauhaus or perhaps it was his own Avant Garde. He
challenged what architecture looked like not only in houses, but also in towers
and museums alike. Crown Hall was simply a glass box on the campus of IIT, but
his rhythmic uses of steel columns to accentuate the free plan was something
radical. He saw architecture as a functionalist entity with the free plan being
an elemental design, free from having defined spaces. The Moses of
architecture…let my plan go!
 |
| Barcelona Pavilion Plan |
MVDR’s
belief of stripping things of its decoration, and decorating the needs instead
was nothing new to designers. Mies was merely the first major architect in
America to use the idea; he should thank Adolph Loos for that. Mies though was
different from Loos. Mies wanted to dematerialize; he wanted to see a world of
architecture that designed off the flow of life and the fluidity of space, not
the egos of the wealthy. He saw function, not decoration. He saw columns and
planes as the skin and bones of the modern world.
Final
MVDR and Le Corbusier were not the
only men to pour their lives into the evolution on the free plan, but they were
some of the first. The ideals and methods that these two created are still used
today on a regular basis and have gone down as some of the most important
architecture theory ever completed. There have been thousands of architects
that have developed the free plan in their careers, some have reached similar
heights as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, but in the end there is a reason
why everyone knows these men by name.
Citations
Benton, C. M. (2009). Back to basics: Maisons
jaoul and the art of mal foutu. Journal of Architectural
Education, 31-40. Retrieved from
https://blackboard.bsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2197239-dt-content-rid-7951790_1/courses/2013Spr_ARCH329s1_Combined/Back
to Basics Maisons Jaoul and the Art of the mal foutu.pdf
Conceptbook. (Photographer). (2012). Anniversary of the birth of ludwig mies van der rohe. [Print
Photo]. Retrieved from
http://www.conceptbook.org/2012/03/27/anniversary-of-the-birth-of-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe/
Hartoonian, G. (1989). Mies van der rohe: The
genealogy of column and wall. Journal of Architectural
Education, 42(2), 43-50. Retrieved from
https://blackboard.bsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2197247-dt-content-rid-7951796_1/courses/2013Spr_ARCH329s1_Combined/MVDR
The genealogy of Column and Wall.pdf
Kroll, A. (Photographer). (2011). Barcelona pavilion. [Print Photo]. Retrieved from
http://www.archdaily.com/109135/ad-classics-barcelona-pavilion-mies-van-der-rohe/
Kroll, A. (Photographer). (2011). Barcelona plan. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from Kroll, A.
(Photographer). (2011). Barcelona pavilion. [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.archdaily.com/109135/ad-classics-barcelona-pavilion-mies-van-der-rohe/
Middeldorf, U. (1947). Mies van der rohe. College Art Journal, 7(1), 34-35. Retrieved
from
https://blackboard.bsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2197246-dt-content-rid-7951794_1/courses/2013Spr_ARCH329s1_Combined/MVDR
Distinctive qualities.pdf
Nozay, R. (Photographer). (2011). Ludwig mies van der rohe. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from
http://redingote.fr/lillustre/ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe/
Persinger, M. (Photographer). (2011). Le corbusier, villa savoye. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from
http://archinect.com/features/article/2673501/5-projects-interview-3-matthew-persinger
Wilson, T. (Photographer). (2009). Domino skeleton. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from
http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/art-history-le-corbusiers
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