Offering plentiful pure daylighting and blurring the boundaries between the inside and exterior worlds, a house boasting an enormous glass wall — or two or three — can maintain infinite architectural attraction to those that don’t thoughts sacrificing a little bit of privateness. Certain, you don’t should trouble stepping exterior to benefit from the breathtaking pure surroundings that will encompass you, however you higher pray that your next-door neighbor isn’t nicknamed “Pat the Peeper.” (There’s a great cause why glass-heavy properties are sometimes erected on distant, woodsy estates and never in dense suburban neighborhoods or in shut neighborhood to golf programs.)
Glass-walled properties have been round for some time now — midcentury showstoppers such because the late Philip Johnson’s Glass Home in New Canaan, Conn., set the bar for glass-heavy personal residences — and appear to have solely gotten extra boldly clear as time has marched on. We’ve rounded up eight of our favourite glass residences from across the globe. A few of these properties are quite well-known — followers of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” after all we didn’t neglect about you — and a few are located in some very fascinating locales. So empty your pockets of stones, seize a Costco-sized bottle of Windex, dig out that outdated Billy Joel album and be part of us, received’t you?
Philip Johnson Glass Home
Buyenlarge / Getty Photographs
Architect: Philip Johnson
Location: New Canaan, Connecticut
The undisputed granddady of glass homes, this inside wall-less masterpiece of modernist structure full with “very costly wallpaper” was accomplished by lauded American architect Philip Johnson in 1949. Johnson lived within the Glass Home (on weekends, in any case) up till his demise in 2005 on the age of 98, though the construction was ultimately used primarily for entertaining, with Johnson and companion, the artwork curator David Whitney, opting to sleep in one other decidedly extra personal construction on the couple’s immaculately landscaped 47-acre New Canaan property: Brick Home. Declared a Nationwide Historic Landmark in 1997, possession of Glass Home was handed to the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation and opened for public excursions 10 years later.
Farnsworth Home
Buyenlarge / Getty Photographs
Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Location: Plano, Illinois
Though the Philip Johnson Glass Home tends to garner a lot of the fanfare within the modernist glass home division, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth Home (inbuilt 1951 however conceived of some years earlier) really served because the inspiration for Johnson’s dwelling, which was accomplished two years prior in 1949. Apparently, the German-born architect was none too happy about this, though that didn’t cease him from collaborating with Johnson on Manhattan’s iconic Seagram Constructing (1958). Erected on a sylvan 62-acre property close to Plano, Illinois, Mies van der Rohe defined the idea behind the 1,5000-square-foot trip dwelling that blends seamlessly into its pure environment: “Nature, too, shall stay its personal life. We should beware to not disrupt it with the colour of our homes and inside fittings. But we must always try and deliver nature, homes, and human beings collectively into a better unity.” Designated as a Nationwide Historic Landmark in 2006, the Farnsworth Home is now owned by Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation and open for public excursions.
Case Research Home #22: Stahl Home
Ovs / Wikimedia Commons / Public Area
Architect: Pierre Koenig
Location: Los Angeles
Probably the most immediately recognizable of all of the Case Research Homessave for, maybe, the Eames Home in Pacific Palisades, Pierre Koenig’s glassy (floor-to-ceiling glass partitions on three sides) modernist masterpiece is most notable for its precarious perch excessive above Los Angeles within the Hollywood Hills, offering dizzying views. Oh boy, these views. Featured in quite a few moviesmusic movies, advert campaigns and one very well-known {photograph} from 1960, the privately owned Stahl Home is open for public viewings and, after all, pre authorised business use. However maintain your pants on, of us: No bare bits or see-through clothes is allowed on the property. And to be clear, whereas Koenig is credited because the Stahl Home’s architect, proprietor CH “Buck” Stahl was the preliminary designer of this iconic L.A. dwelling the place his household nonetheless lives.
Ben Rose Residence (aka ‘Cameron’s Home’)
Carmen B / Wikimedia Commons / Public Area
Architects: A. James Speyer, David Haid
Location: Highland Park, Illinois
This cantilevered, glass-wrapped midcentury stunner comes geared up with a wealthy cinematic historical past. OK, so possibly the house’s pavilion/storage solely appeared in a single movie from the Nineteen Eighties, however what a memorable, cringe-inducing look it was. Designed in 1953 by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe protégés A. James Speyer and David Haid for shopper Leg Ben Rose, the 5,300-square-foot abode at 370 Beech St. within the upscale Chicago suburb of Highland Park hit the market in 2011 for a cool $1.65 million. Beforehand in 2009, the house had listed for $2.3 million and dropped to $1.8 million. A purple classic Ferrari and a male teenager on the verge of a nervous breakdown named Cameron had been reportedly not included within the sale.
Moereels home
Courtesy of Crepain Binst Structure
Architect: Jo Crepain
Location: Antwerp
Positioned on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium, stands Woning Moereels, an impossible-to-miss six-story abode that, as soon as upon a time, was an lively water tower. The construction’s 17-year-long transformation from a hulking, early twentieth century concrete reservoir into a contemporary, stair-heavy dream dwelling was overseen by the late Belgian architect Jo Crepain. Woning Moereels’ towering concrete skeleton is enclosed in a semi-transparent glass facade that certainly had native voyeurs all labored up when the “lantern-like” dwelling was accomplished in 2006.
Glass Pavilion
Courtesy of Steve Hermann Design
Architect: Steve Hermann
Location: Montecito, California
Simply taking a look at images of self-taught architect-to-the-stars Steve Hermann’s glassy 14,000-square-foot (!) ultramodern manse in Montecito leaves us speechless. As does the truth that the five-bedroom dwelling contains an artwork gallery-cum-32-car storage. That stated, we’ll let the Glass Pavilion web site do many of the speaking: “An nearly fully glass dwelling, it permits the occupants to be comfortably inside whereas fully enveloped inside nature. As you drive down the lengthy gated driveway, it slowly comes into view. You’re instantly confronted by a big all glass dwelling, floating above gently rolling lawns. The location [sic] of it’s awe-inspiring.” So awe-inspired that you really want the Glass Pavilion all to your self? Described by L.A.-based Hermann himself as his “opus,” the Farnsworth Home-inspired dwelling that took six years to finish hit the market in 2010. And nice information, all you discount hunters: The preliminary asking value of $35 million has since been lowered.
The Glass Home
Courtesy of santambrogiomilano.com
Architects: Carlo Santambrogio, Ennio Arosio
Location: Milan
Milanese architect Carlo Santambrogio and furnishings designer Ennio Arosio didn’t simply cease at blue-tinted glass partitions when conceiving Glass Home: Almost all the things inside this cube-shaped idea house is constructed from glass, from the shelving to the staircase to the bath. Even the couch and the mattress boast glass frames designed particularly for the challenge. Cozy! The glass itself is between 6 and seven millimeters thick and could be specifically heated throughout the colder months. And whereas the house’s tranquil, sylvan setting makes the entire lack of privateness factor a bit simpler to swallow, this isn’t to say you received’t entice a rapt viewers of woodland creatures each morning while you groggily descend downstairs in your underpants to make an omelette in your absolutely glass kitchen.