Modern Architecture: Free in Freetown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This place in “Freetown Christiana” looks like it would fit in Venice Beach, even though it is made out of stuff that can be found in the local dump – and there could have been a pun hiding in there if weren’t for the fact that stuff from the dump is probably not free.  I put it here because it reinforces a few ideas about art/architecture as follows:

• There is a style to it.
• It is not restricted by economic boundaries.
• It may be influenced by them though, i.e. the first Modern Architecture, was probably built by the rich.
• It follows function, as both of these places appear to be after the view.
• If there is a difference between art and architecture, then the image on the top is art and the one on the bottom is architecture.
• The house on the top wins the prize for sustainability.
• The world is the best museum there is.
• It can be a whole lot of fun and improve your life, no matter who or where you are.

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“Real” Appeal

The ‘real” appeal of being house proud.

Three in a row.

Places like this are mostly excluded from the intellectualized world of architecture and design, except for – dare I say it -on  HGTV.  Those people understand that people don’t live in architecture.  They live in houses.  Whoever lives here is house proud, a term not often heard these days and in my mind somehow attached to the “American Dream.”  It means that even the most modest abode becomes alluring when it is obviously cared for.  Here the meticulously manicured yard, the fence, the porch, even the matching up and downstairs air conditioners deliver a strong subliminal message that says, “we like our house a lot and you should too.”  The thing about subliminal messages is that they are the stuff of art.  Art museums are full of ordinary objects arranged by artists against carefully chosen contexts in an effort to deliver some message often much less penetrating than the one that happens organically here.

Lest one think that there is a great deal of humanity, but really no architecture here, a closer look may be in order.  Consider how the bit of light foundation contrasts with the grass, forming a  visual perimeter around the house which doubles as a sill for the ample basement windows.  Consider how it repeats under the fist floor windows, capping the rusticated brick work and defining the top of a visual base for the entire building. Consider how the rusticated corners add substance to the structure.  Consider how the brick diapering and decorative pattern balances the heavy base and add interest to a plain facade.  Consider how repeating the house three times in a row in different colors adds humor. Perhaps this is architecture after all.

Reporducing an amazing body of work.

Moravian Pottery & and Tile Works Museum, Doylestown, PA, USA

This is a piece of Americana from “the Mercer Mile” consisting of  three early examples of site cast concrete building.  Ironically these building were engineering innovations by American Henry Chapman Mercer who thought that industrialization was damaging American society.  The Mercer Museum, Fonthill, his home, and the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, house collections of American turn of the century decorative arts, especially ceramics and tile work, influenced by the “Arts & Crafts” movement. I plan to make a visit soon.

I have a more compelling reason for offering this post, though.  The tile in the photo immediately caught my attention for its artistic quality, which is what lead me to examine its source.  I found that it is barely a scratch in the surface of an amazing body of work that is actually being reproduced in the still functioning tile works.  These tiles can be purchased for installation in modern building projects.  I am not one to believe in a bucket list,  but the possibility of installing some of these tiles in a yet to be designed residential project is going a long way toward changing my mind.

Are artist and architects interchangeable?

MLS/Web ID: 202076

Historically, many architects have also been artists, Le Corbusier comes immediately to mind.  Judging by this artist studio, though, I am not at all sure that the combination is reversible.  Shock value may deliver a message in a museum installation, but what does it do in the context of a suburban neighborhood?  Does this artist really want his or her home to be landmarked as the place that looks like half of a bad 1980’s contemporary style spec. house?  A real architect could have provided this artist with an elegant studio, both inside and out.