Philip Johnson, Hodgson House, New Canaan, USA, 1951
Philip Johnson, Hodgson House, New Canaan, USA, 1951 (View from google)
This one-family home is designed by Philip Johnson in 1951 for Richard Hudson and its family.
The house, settled into a big garden, consists of two pavilions, one for living and one for the bedrooms, which are linked by a glass-enclosed passage. The living pavilion was built first and has a rectangular shape wherein the spaces are gathered around a three-sided courtyard. With this gesture the surrounding nature seems to intrude into the large living space and underlines its openness.
Whereas the service and private areas are more closed and orientated to the outside. The areas are connected and organized by two crossing axis, one leading from the entrance into the courtyard, putting the focus once again on this semi-inside-outside-space.
As in many of Johnsons early works one can see the modernist influence on the design. Clearly the layout of the floor plan reinterprets the Resor House (1938) and the Hubbe House (1935) of Mies van der Rohe. On the other hand the distribution reminds of a roman house or the Villa Poiana so Johnson also works with historical references.
The façade of rhythmic glass and brick walls capped by shallow steel cornice and a flat roof form a simple construction and lead to a clear outer appearance of the villa.
One interesting piece of furniture is the burl wood sofa designed by Johnson, with a brass table lamp built into its attached granite side table.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_and_Geraldine_Hodgson_House
http://www.ncmodernist.org/pjohnson.htm
Reviewed by:
Alexandra Niedermayr, Alexandre Maurel, Martin Charachon, Sonja Schneider (March 2017)