Courthouse Plus Ultra 2399
Mies van der Hejduk House Quondam 2450
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And in Aalto's Woflsburg Cultural Center the rectangular configuration of the whole composition is barely maintained as he organizes the necessary diagonal shapes of the auditorium.
This is different from Kahn's Goldenberg House project where the exceptional diagonal is in part an element of the structural pattern and partially spatial, to make a series of spaces that go around the corners of the building continuously, rather than one side overlapping the other.
Mies allows nothing to get in the way of the consistency of his order, of the point, line, and plane of his always complete pavilions. If Wright camouflages his circumstantial exceptions, Mies excludes them: less is more. Since 1940 Mies has not used a circumstantial diagonal, and in his series of courthouse projects of the 1930s, the diagonal is a function of the free plan rather than a condition of the circumstantial. Because the diagonal is dominant rather than exceptional and loosely contained within its rectalinear frame, there is little tension between the diagonals and the rectangles. The diagonal chords of the trusses in Mies' large-span buildings are, of course, not circumstantial exceptions.
In the Villa Savoye., again, the exceptional diagonal of the ramp is clearly expedient in section and elevation and allows Le Corbusier to create a strong opposition to the regular order of column bays and envelope.
--Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contraction in Architecture (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966), pp.57-8.
It should be noted, however, that the dominant diagonal of Mies' Court-house of 1936 is indeed a garage, and this positioning of the garage allows for an easier backing of a car into the garage.
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2000.11.23
Domestic or QE: Domestic
...collect domestic Mies material... ...become an expert on his house plans and the "collage" perspectivism.
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2007.10.25
I want to write...
Distort the courthouse with garage model. Mix up the Ichnographia plans.
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