Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier

(FAÇADE)

By

Joshua Lee Yee Kai (0315820)

The two modern masters, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier gave rise to

revolutionary ideas in the way we shape our buildings, the derivation of the international

style, fundamental principles when thinking about architecture and great influences that

are still being carried on till today. Two of this modern masters shared almost similar

philosophies in terms of shaping the façade of our modern homes. German architect,

Walter Gropius (n.d.) the founder of the Bauhaus school once said, “Architecture

begins where engineering ends.” Walter Gropius had in mind to unite the two different

faculties which is architecture and engineering together. Both disciplines showed a clear

separation, however unification came about when Walter Gropius suggested and

implemented the usage of industrial materials into architecture. Besides that, Swiss-

born architect Le Corbusier, famous for his Five Points of Architecture stated “The

house is a machine for living.”(Corbusier, 1923) He was very much inspired by the

mechanization emerging in the industrial technology of the time. The statement “The

house is a machine for living” by Le Corbusier (1923) is pointing towards the

mechanization and mass production of that time that made life more efficient. Le

Corbusier believed that mechanization and mass production of industrial materials will

help buildings to be erected quicker and more cost-effective. All in all, both modern

masters, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier saw the potential in mass producing

industrial materials that would not only allow houses to be built at an inexpensive price

but at the same time more efficiently. In their work, industrial materials are widely

implemented on the external façade of their buildings, both Walter Gropius and Le

Corbusier strife to change the way how the modern building is built and looks.

The façade of the Gropius House implemented having a free façade. A free

façade is enabled by having structural steel or timber to support the weight of the

building instead of using a load bearing wall. Basically, the loads of the building are

transferred down to the earth foundation by using a structural support system. Due to

the diminish usage of having the walls as a support system, the walls can be replaced

with almost anything on the face of the building and are free to establish to an almost

endless variety of design (Gropius, 1965). Taking the Gropius House as an example,

almost every side of the façade consists of horizontal ribbon windows. At the same time,

the most obvious example of a free façade would be the screened porch of the Gropius

House. The screened porch is made out of mainly glass walls and steel structure as a

support. Nonetheless, although the Gropius

House is a well-known modernist teachings of

the Bauhaus, it is actually also a hybrid between

the traditional New England architecture style.

As an example, the free façade of the Gropius

House consists of common bricks and local

clapboard material (Kroll, 2011). This is because, Walter Gropius had in mind to blend

in with the surrounding New England farmhouse neighborhoods aesthetics. All in all,

free façade enabled flexibility in terms of the design of façade on the Gropius House to

implement to almost any kind of style (Kroll, 2011). Likewise, free façade being one of

the key architecture concept from Le Corbusier’s famous Five Points of Architecture is

also implemented in his work, the Villa Stein. By changing the roles of the wall, a free

façade enabled Le Corbusier to express his building with a different window

Screened Porch

Gropius House Villa Stein

arrangement style. For instance, the façade of Villa Stein consists of vertical and

horizontally arranged windows to express a play of light into the interior space. At the

same time, a free façade allowed Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein to be composed of hand-

laid brick and concrete block that was cemented, plastered, and painted to give the

modern industrial look (Gartman, 2012). Moreover, a free façade also enabled the

building Villa Stein to convey a strong sense of unity by the usage of white plaster on

the façade. The different components of the building like the terraces, balconies and et

cetera are like one main ingredient that speaks about modernism, harmony and

simplicity (Gartman, 2012).

Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier exhibit similarity in both of their works. In this

case, both of their buildings, the Gropius House and Villa Stein implemented a stark

white on the external façade. White was the preferred colour of many modernists, for it

symbolized the pristine purity they were seeking and also made their forms stand out in

the sunlight (Gartman, 2012).

On the other hand, the horizontal ribbon windows on the façade of the building of

the Gropius House is unique as it would allow more lights to come in when compared to

the traditional New England style windows of most of the houses in the area at that

point of time. Due to the structure of the traditional New England architecture, windows

are rigid and small in terms of size, which ultimately limits the potential for lights to

illuminate the interior. The window placement on the façade of Gropius House also

speaks about a public versus private concept from the size of the windows. For

example, the more public area like the living room and dining room has a larger window

on the façade when compared to the façade of the more private places, the bedrooms

and the toilets. In this case, we can also say that the size of windows indicates the

hierarchy of the space itself. For example, the exterior façade of the living room and

dining room spaces which have a larger window, can be said to be of a higher hierarchy

when compared to the bedroom and toilet spaces which have a smaller window.

Similarly, Le Corbusier also implemented horizontal ribbon windows on the façade of his

work, Villa Stein. The horizontal ribbon window on the façade of the building Villa Stein,

gives a sense of unity with the exterior by helping to frame the surrounding landscape of

the house. For instance, it provides a consistent framing of the surrounding landscape

regardless of whether one is inside or outside the building. Therefore, the concept of the

building Villa Stein can be regarded as one that is open and transparent. All of which

are the integral part and parcel of Le Corbusier’s desire to establish an open and

transparent building that is inviting like an art gallery for his client, the stein couple which

have a hobby of collecting artworks.

Based from the front and back elevation of the Gropius House, we can see that it

is designed to be symmetrical in its façade composition. The same thing goes for the

left and right elevation of the building, although not similar as a whole but the general

idea of the composition can be made. The Gropius House also shows having a

combination of vertically and horizontally placed transparency composition on the

façade. For instance, the screened porch glass walls are shown arranged in a vertical

manner. On the contrary, the horizontal ribbon windows are arranged in a horizontally

stretched manner. Furthermore, based from the front and back elevation of the Villa

Stein, a rectilinear form is observed. The Villa Stein shows both vertical and horizontal

symmetry in its façade composition. Similar like the Gropius House, the horizontal

ribbon windows stretched from end to end on the façade to show a horizontal

composition. On the other hand, it also shows a vertical display of rhythm composition

on the façade. Moreover, from the left and right elevation, we can see different elements

arranged in a proportional manner on the façade to form a symmetrical façade. For

example, the windows and balcony formed a straight vertical line and thus becomes a

symmetrical element which then forms to be a symmetrical façade.

Gropius House

In conclusion, the Gropius House by Walter Gropius and Villa Stein by Le

Corbusier both showed various similarities in terms of their material choices, philosophy

and way of designing. Walter Gropius had to adapt to the New England vernacular

architecture style of that time to blend in with the local houses so that his building would

not appear too foreign but at the same time, showing the concept of modernism. The

usage of prefabricated horizontal ribbon windows was already the step ahead in

showcasing his philosophy of “Architecture begins where engineering ends.”

(Gropius, n.d.) The Gropius House is the perfect example by the founder of Bauhaus,

Walter Gropius, the school of art and architecture in Germany in showcasing his

intentions to unite art with technology as he pushed on for modernism. Furthermore, Le

Corbusier states that the running of a home consists of precise functions in a regular

order. (Corbusier, Jeanneret, 1929) That statement ties back to his famous quote “The

house is a machine for living.” (Corbusier, 1923) Based from Corbusier’s Villa Stein,

we can conclude that it was designed with the intention of showcasing the efficiency by

the usage of industrial materials. The design of Villa Stein was built with the philosophy

of a machine that works exactly the right way for the client. All in all, Walter Gropius with

his philosophy to unite art with engineering and Le Corbusier’s philosophy of making a

home as efficient as a machine made a great impact on the building industries in the

current generation today. Both of their works in which, shared almost similar

philosophies in utilizing technology and pushing towards a new era called modernism

has made them be regarded as the modern masters of architecture.

(1529 words)

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