Extravagant homes of great architects that they built for themselves

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Great architects of the 20th century are people with extraordinary thinking. Of course, not all of them lived or live in houses built according to their own designs, but still some were lucky enough to try out their most daring ideas on themselves. These people made incredibly original houses and lived in them for their pleasure. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with several such projects.

Walter Gropius' home in Lincoln

Walter Gropius is an outstanding German architect and founder of the famous educational institution "Buachaus" (State Building House), which existed from 1919 to 1933, until the Nazis came to power. Under Hitler, Walter Gropius was forced to leave Germany - first to England and then to America.

The house, which the architect named in his own spirit - Gropius House - was the first project he implemented in the States.

The building is designed in the Art Nouveau style - with tape windows, glass inserts, a flat roof, an external spiral staircase and an asymmetrical porch. In those days (the house was built in 1938), the building looked like it was transported to these parts from the future. People even specially came to Lincoln from neighboring cities to look at it.

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Illinois

American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who created the so-called "organic architecture" and invented a type of residential buildings called "prairie houses", is considered one of the masters of American residential architecture of the last century.

His buildings were very peculiar, and he chose a house in his own unusual style for his family. It was built by Wright in 1889 - after he got married and received a loan from his employer.

The facade is quite bold in its form (a triangular pediment combined with a rectangular base), bricks of different colors, huge flowerpots with flowers. If you look at the building from a modern point of view, it is somewhat reminiscent of a crypt or a memorial complex. In the last century, this building (later the architect added a design studio to it) was considered very modern, because the architect abandoned the "old-fashioned" domes, towers and spiers when designing it.

Philip Johnson home in New Canaan

Another famous American architect, Philip Johnson, also lived in a house he designed himself. Glass House, which translates from English as "glass house", he built in 1949.

The building has an open plan, all exterior walls are made of glass. Will smooth the house like a glazed gazebo. In fact, this is a huge transparent cube room. Inside, in the center, there is the only enclosed space: a brick tube-like bathroom with a stove.

The house fits perfectly into the landscape of the site. After the construction of this structure, the architect in different years erected 13 more buildings on his territory, some of which later became art galleries and pavilions.

House of Luis Barragán in Mexico City

The Mexican architect built his studio house (Luis Bragan studio) in 1948. The building is considered an international piece of modern architecture that goes beyond all possible boundaries and reflects the style of the post-war period of Barragán's work. Experts consider this project a masterpiece that embodies a variety of philosophical trends.

Outside, the view of the building is gloomy (even despite the idea of multi-colored walls, similar to the details of the designer), but the owner was very comfortable in it, and in this residence the architect lived and worked for forty years - until his death.

Frank Gehry's Santa Monica home

At first glance, this building is puzzling, and, frankly, it seems that it was designed by an absolutely insane person. But do not forget that Frank Gehry is not at all crazy, but the father of architectural deconstructivism, moreover, a Pritzker Prize winner.

I must say, the very choice of the site for the construction was a challenge - in this old working-class district of Santa Monica there are modest, poor houses built in a traditional style, with which the architect's house is in great contrast.

Experts believe that the house embodies both the courage of creative thought and modesty, the desire to live in seclusion, as evidenced by the use of simple materials and natural colors.

The house is no less interesting inside: each room is furnished in its own color scheme, the rooms are light, cozy and everything is shrouded in a creative atmosphere.

Shekhtel's House in Moscow

The architect bought a small plot of land in Ermolaevsky lane at the end of the century before last. He built the house, of course, according to his own project, and Vladimir Adamovich helped him in his work. In letters to Chekhov, Shekhtel called his house "a hut of obscene architecture," specifying that cabbies usually take it for either a pickaxe or a synagogue. In 1904, the house was supplemented with a two-storey annex.

In this mansion, the father of Russian Art Nouveau Fyodor Shekhtel lived with his family for 14 years and, I must say, this time was the most fruitful for him in terms of creative ideas.

The Shekhtel mansion-castle is considered to be his transitional work from the neo-Gothic style to the Art Nouveau style. Interesting are the irises on the mosaic facade above the main entrance. One flower is depicted blooming, the second is blooming, and the third is withering, which, as you might guess, symbolizes the stages of life.

Melnikov House in Moscow

A cylindrical building with honeycomb windows, located in Krivoarbatsky lane in Moscow, really looks like a beehive from the outside.

It looks very austere, but architects consider it a classic of the avant-garde and a brilliant project.

Konstantin Melnikov, an outstanding architect of the last century, the author of many well-known projects in the Soviet Union, lived in this house. For all the simplicity of the hive house, many architects consider it the pinnacle of Melnikov's creativity.

By the way, he built the house at his own expense - maybe that's why the Soviet authorities allowed the architect to live alone in the center of Moscow in his own "mansion"?

More about the hive house and the architect Melnikov read here.