Jacques Brownson
"A Steel and Glass House" (MS 1954)
Advisor: Ludwig Hilberseimer
Others acknowledged: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Daniel Brenner, Reginald Malcolmson, Frank Kornacker and Ernest Vlad
Material: Steel
Structural system: Four (4) transverse, external, rigid plate girder-column bents with suspended roof system
Maximum span: 34 ft.
“The possibilities of this concept of building are infinite. The refinement and development necessary in any building era will come from hard work, character, and a clear understanding of the problems and forces shaping our times.”
Jacques Brownson’s master thesis is an exception within the program as it is the only one that featured the built work of a student. Brownson explained in the preface that when he submitted the thesis in 1954 he had already been living in this house for two years. The construction started in 1949, that is, during the construction process of Mies’s Farnsworth House.
“The architectural character of this house is an expression of a logical structural system, clarified by the elimination of needless parts and raised spiritually above the plane of mere building.
Even within a logical structural system, there were many problems to be solved. The height from floor to ceiling, the proportion of window divisions, the relation between the roof plate and the rigid frames; these are by their very nature, though dependent on structure, visual problems.
A space such as this house can be discussed or imagined, but remains to be experienced. The simplicity of the architectural elements gives a new richness to both interior and exterior space. The inherent beauty of a flowering crabapple branch, the moonlit shadows of twisted trees on the fallen snow, early spring and the rivulets of rain on the glass; all are enhanced by the subtlety of the architecture. In a glass pavilion the spectacle of nature is always before you.”
Functionally, the house is divided into three sections: an exterior porch at the east end; the day area (living room, dining room, kitchen, utility room and entrance); and the night area (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the boiler room). In the day area, a large space of 32 by 48 feet, a core houses the kitchen and the utility room. Brownson explains that the night area is compartmentalized with plastered plaster partitions, so they are modifiable if necessary, since the only fixed elements are the ducts within them.
The structure is visible from the outside, the elevations being defined by the position of the eight metal columns. The enclosure is made of glass, with the exception of two brick walls raised between the two west-facing structural frames, that provide privacy to the night area.
